Why it is in the news
In the just-concluded session of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Peoples Conference president and Handwara MLA Sajad Gani Lone raised the regional imbalance in issuing Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) certificates, and Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather directed the government to examine the alleged imbalance and initiate corrective measures if needed. According to The Indian Express (Explained, 11 October 2026), J&K issued 26,514 EWS certificates in two years, of which 24,058 (91%) went to Jammu division and only 2,486 to Kashmir division. Lone contrasted this with the roughly 2,20,000 Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards, about 144,000 of them in Kashmir and about 75,000 in Jammu, and asked that AAY norms be adopted as the EWS eligibility test.
The exam angle
Issue: A uniform, centrally modelled income-and-asset test for the 10% EWS quota is producing sharply different outcomes across the two divisions of J&K, raising questions of fair design and State-level tailoring.