EWS (Economically Weaker Section) Certificate in Lakshadweep

What is an EWS certificate in Lakshadweep?

An EWS certificate in Lakshadweep is the Income and Asset Certificate that a competent revenue authority signs to prove a resident belongs to the Economically Weaker Sections, so that the 10% reservation created by the 103rd Constitutional Amendment can be claimed in central government recruitment and in educational institutions. The Department of Revenue of the UT Administration of Lakshadweep is the certifying department. The department is headed by an Additional District Magistrate operating from Revenue Bhavan, Kavaratti 682 555, and Deputy Collectors and Block Development Officers are posted in the revenue sub-division of each island. Under the central rules, officers of that rank; District Magistrate, Additional District Magistrate, Collector, Deputy Collector, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, are competent to sign the Income and Asset Certificate.

Lakshadweep delivers most revenue services online. The Revenue Service page on lakshadweep.gov.in lists twelve services, almost all of them linked to the national serviceonline.gov.in platform, and the Administration also runs an e-District portal at edistrict.utl.gov.in: ST certificate, domicile or residence certificate, nativity certificate, dependency certificate, income certificate in an individual and a family version, marriage certificate, certificate of a person known in different names, trade licence, resident ID card, entry permit to Lakshadweep, and land diversion certificate. A further set: possession certificate, land evaluation certificate, solvency certificate and heirship certificate, is issued manually. No EWS or Income and Asset Certificate appears anywhere in either list. The EWS certificate in Lakshadweep is therefore a paper application to the revenue office on the central proforma, not an online service.

Who can and who cannot apply for an EWS certificate in Lakshadweep?

You can apply if you reside in the Lakshadweep islands, your family's gross annual income is below Rs 8 lakh for the financial year from all sources taken together, and your family owns none of the excluded assets. "Family" for this test means the applicant, the applicant's parents, siblings below 18 years of age, the spouse, and children below 18 years of age, so an elder married brother's earnings do not enter the calculation, while a father's fishing income and a mother's coconut income do.

You cannot apply if you are recognised as Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Class. This is the single most important point about EWS in Lakshadweep, and it is why the certificate is so rarely used here. The overwhelming majority of the islands' population — of a total population of 64,473 recorded in the 2011 Census; is Scheduled Tribe, and the ST certificate is the Revenue Department's headline reservation document, listed first on its own service page. A person entitled to an ST certificate is outside the EWS scheme entirely. EWS exists only for residents not covered by SC, ST or OBC reservation at all, which in these islands means a small number of families, typically settled non-tribal residents and government staff families.

You are also not eligible, whatever your income, if your family owns or possesses any of the following:

• 5 acres of agricultural land or more;
• a residential flat of 1,000 sq ft or more;
• a residential plot of 100 sq yards or more in a notified municipality;
• a residential plot of 200 sq yards or more in an area other than a notified municipality.

Property held by the family in different locations is added together before the test is applied. For island families this matters in a specific way: land held on the mainland, in Kerala or elsewhere, has to be declared alongside land on the island, and the two are clubbed.

What documents are required?

The EWS file builds on the Revenue Department's income certificate checklist and adds the asset side:

• Aadhaar or another photo identity proof, or the Lakshadweep Resident ID Card, which the department issues as a separate revenue service.
• Proof of residence on the island. A nativity, domicile or residence certificate already issued by the department is the cleanest form of this.
• Ration card or family record, which fixes the family unit being certified.
• An affidavit declaring total family income from all sources and every land, plot and flat holding, in the islands and on the mainland.
• Salary certificate, pay slip or income tax return. Households living on fishing, coconut cultivation, small trade or daily wages have no payslip and rely on a declaration plus local verification by the sub-division.
• Land and property records. The department's own possession, land evaluation and diversion certificates are drawn from the same records verification will check.
• A recent passport-size photograph for the face of the certificate.

How to get an EWS certificate in Lakshadweep

1. Check first that you are outside SC, ST and OBC. In Lakshadweep this step decides most cases. If you hold or are entitled to an ST certificate from the Revenue Department, the EWS route is closed to you and you should claim under ST instead.
2. Work out the family's income and asset position. Add salary, fishing, coconut, business and professional income for the financial year across all family members as defined above, then list every parcel of land, residential plot and flat the family holds anywhere, including on the mainland, because holdings are clubbed.
3. Prepare the application on the central Income and Asset Certificate proforma, addressed to the competent revenue authority under the Additional District Magistrate.
4. Attach the identity, residence, ration card, affidavit, income proof, land records and photograph, and submit the file to the Deputy Collector or Block Development Officer of the revenue sub-division on your own island. Carry originals for cross-checking at the counter.
5. Pay only the fee the counter lists, plus the notified operator charge if a Common Service Centre helped you prepare the papers, and collect the acknowledgement.
6. Wait for local verification. Revenue staff verify declared income and land holdings before the competent authority signs, and on the smaller islands this step is a genuine local enquiry rather than a desk check.
7. Collect the signed certificate and check the certificate number, the date, the financial year for which it is valid, and the spelling of your name and address against your Aadhaar and mark sheets before leaving.

How do you check the status of an application?

Keep the acknowledgement issued at the sub-division counter and quote its number when you follow up. For the revenue services that do run online, applications filed through serviceonline.gov.in and edistrict.utl.gov.in are tracked on the portal against the application number given at submission, and the e-District portal publishes service periods for the services it carries. The Resident ID Card, for example, is listed with a service period of seven days. There is no online tracking for the paper EWS file. If the file has stalled, contact the Revenue Department at Revenue Bhavan, Kavaratti on 04896-262384 or 04896-263440, or write to addl.dm-lk@nic.in, and take the acknowledgement number with you.

Why are EWS applications rejected in Lakshadweep?

• The applicant is entitled to an ST, SC or OBC certificate, and so falls outside the EWS scheme: much the commonest reason in these islands.
• Family income crosses Rs 8 lakh once fishing, coconut and business income is added to salary.
• Land on the island plus land on the mainland adds up to 5 acres or more after clubbing.
• The family's flat measures 1,000 sq ft or more, or a residential plot crosses the 100 or 200 sq yard limit.
• The file was submitted at the wrong island's sub-division, rather than where the family normally resides.
• The affidavit understates income or omits a property that local verification then finds.
• The certificate names the wrong financial year for the recruitment or admission concerned.

What does it cost, and what about agents?

An EWS certificate in Lakshadweep costs only the government fee the Revenue Department lists at its counter, plus the notified operator charge if you use a Common Service Centre. The department does not publish a separate EWS fee on lakshadweep.gov.in, so ask at the sub-division counter, pay only what is written there, and take a receipt every time. No revenue official, clerk or middleman is entitled to anything beyond the listed fee, and there is no faster channel that money can buy.

Agents who offer to "arrange" the verification are selling risk. Under the central rules an appointment made on an EWS claim remains provisional until the appointing authority verifies the certificate directly with the issuing officer, and a claim found to be false leads to termination of service and to action on the certificate. On islands with small populations and close local verification, a false declaration of income or land is unusually easy to detect. Keep the receipt and the acknowledgement, and raise any demand for money with the Additional District Magistrate's office at Kavaratti.

When do you need the certificate by?

Under the central rules the crucial date for holding a valid Income and Asset Certificate is the closing date for receipt of applications for the post, unless the recruiting body fixes another date. Because verification in Lakshadweep is a local enquiry and because inter-island movement depends on ship and helicopter schedules, start the application well ahead of an examination or admission deadline rather than in the closing week. Take a fresh certificate for each financial year instead of reusing the previous year's copy, the income test is applied year by year, and a certificate for an expired financial year is treated as no certificate at all.