The
UPA government is set to begin its discussions on the
new reservation proposals for OBCs in higher educational
institutes, CNBC-TV18 shares with domain-b its report.
Arjun
Singh, HRD Minister says that the intention of the government
is to introduce the OBC Quota Bill in the current session.
He has been working at it from the word go. But the final
draft of the OBC Quota Bill, that is likely to be introduced
in Parliament next week, will be a diluted version of
what Arjun Singh originally had in his mind.
The
bill that''s raked up enough controversy on the issue of
how and when and in what percentage seats in government
aided educational institutes should be reserved for OBCs,
will now provide for a staggered implementation of quotas
as opposed to getting 27 out of every 100 students from
OBC quota from the next academic year, something the HRD
ministry wanted to do at one sweep.
The
staggered approach is something the IITs and IIMs want.
It gives them time to increase the number of seats so
that the general category intake is not disturbed.
For
institutes that do not get government funds, a separate
bill has been drafted, but it''s unlikely to be introduced
in the current session. The challenge now for the government
to have a political consensus on the new bills as some
of the UPA allies from the South are opposed to this approach.
The
Prime minister''s office this time took extra care in bringing
about a consensus on the issue. All the UPA allies were
consulted separately as the PM tried to convince them
on adopting a staggered approach on OBC reservations.
Though
the battle ahead might be not that easy, the question
really is
whether the bill will be passed by Parliament in this
monsoon session or will it get further delayed if it is
sent to the standing committee.
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