Bhubaneswar, April 6 -- The Odisha Cabinet has approved 11.25% reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) students in medical and technical courses and also enhanced quotas for Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) students. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi, and will apply across state universities and their affiliated institutions offering professional courses. Under the new policy, ST reservation will be increased to 22.50% from 12%, while SC reservation will rise to 16.25% from 8% in medical, engineering and other technical education streams. The government said the newly introduced 11.25% quota for SEBC students will be implemented in technical and medical education institutions in the state. The move is also aimed at bringing Odisha's reservation policy closer to national practices. Since the 2015-16 academic year, central educational institutions, including IITs, NITs, IIMs and IIITs, have implemented 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes, except in minority institutions. Additionally, 27% OBC reservation in the All India Quota seats for medical and dental colleges was introduced from the 2021-22 academic session. Of the 2,421 undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats in Odisha, 545 will be reserved for ST students, 393 for SC students, and 272 for SEBC students under the new system. Similarly, of the 44,579 engineering seats, 10,030 will be earmarked for ST students, 7,244 for SC students, and 5,015 for SEBC students. The opposition BJD and Congress demanded provision of reservation for SEBC students on the basis of their population ratio in Odisha and not just 11.25%. "While the quota is announced for ST and SC as per their population ratio, why is it just 11.25% for OBCs who constitute about 54% of the state's population," said state Congress chief Bhakta Charan Das....