Kathmandu, October 15 In the last eight years, as many as 16,939 persons have joined the civil service under reservation quota. During the same period, a total of 24,129 joined the civil service under the open category. According to data with Public Service Commission, of the people who joined government service under reservation quota, 5,728 were women, 4,538 indigenous nationalities, 3,719 Madhesis, 1,541 Dalits, 789 differently-abled and 624 were from marginalised groups. As per the reservation rule introduced after promulgation of the Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007, 45 per cent civil service seats are reserved for clusters that qualify for reservation. Women, Dalits, people from marginalised groups, differently-abled, Madhesis and indigenous nationalities qualify for reservation. Ashok Jha, a member of the PSC said reservation had helped bring people from marginalised communities into the mainstream. “The inclusion system has encouraged people from marginalised communities and groups to appear for the most competitive PSC exams, which itself is an achievement because in the past, people from these communities did not even think of appearing for the exam,” he said. He said in the initial years some reserved seats would remain vacant as nobody would pass the tests. “But now, it is hard to see any reserved seat not being filled,” he said, adding that  the motivation of candidates selected through reservation process was so high that they even excelled in the open category exams. He said reservation was on the right track as it was yielding the desired results. He said Nepal needed to have reservation policy at least for another ten years. A former chief secretary said reservation policy should be reviewed every 10 years and time had come now to do the same. He said only the intended category of people should benefit from reservation policy and not privileged people. He said the government needed to seriously review inclusion policies. “There should be only one time inclusion quota for intended groups,” he said, adding that they also had to see the quality of those people who had joined the civil service. “The irony of the reservation policy is that a candidate can get selected by merely securing 40 marks whereas a candidate competing under the open category may not be lucky even if s/he scores 65 marks,” he informed.