NEW DELHI: This could turn out to be quite an appropriate Diwali gift to MPs: Each parliamentarian will get to admit 10 children of their choice to Kendriya Vidyalayas from next year.A formal proposal to increase the MP quota from six to ten will be taken up at the meeting of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan Board of Governors next week.The Union government runs over 1,000 Kendriya Vidyalayas. MPs across political parties had raised demands for increasing the quota, citing increase in number of requests from people in their constituencies. The last increase in MP admission quota at KVs was done in 2012, from 2 to 6. Increasing this to 10 would imply that nearly 7,900 KV seats would be based on recommendations of MPs.A proposal to increase the HRD minister’s special dispensation quota for admission may also be moved. Both proposals are on the agenda of the board’s October 30 meeting. HRD minister Smriti Irani is the chairperson of the KVS. “We are quite optimistic that they should be cleared. On increasing the MP quota, there has been consensus and it should definitely go ahead. The chairman’s discretionary quota could also be increased to 1,500 or so with due respect to all court orders,” an HRD ministry official told ET.Queries emailed to the HRD ministry through the PIB spokesperson only acknowledged receipt of the queries. UPA’s HRD minister Kapil Sibal sparked a furore in Parliament by scrapping the quota to bring in greater meritocracy at KVs. Sibal had to give in and restore the quota in a month. He later tried to reach out to MPs by increasing the MP quota to six. Sibal, however, gave up his special dispensation quota for KV admissions.Smriti Irani is undermining the PM’s promise of striking at the roots of corruption. Increasing the MP’s quota for admissions to KVs is a terrible idea, and should be abandoned. Quotas such as these promote a culture of patronage, which undermines the idea of an equal opportunity merit-based system. If the intent is to ensure more children from disadvantaged backgrounds find a place in the these schools, then the ministry should set up a mechanism that would enable this. Far from ensuring equality of opportunity, the admission quota will lay the ground for creating avenues for corruption and a web of patronage. Neither of which India needs.