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No review of OBC quota

	June 12, 2006

The Government has again made it clear that there would be no review of the policy to reserve 27 per cent seats for people belonging to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in institutions of higher learning. At the same time, the Government is putting together material forming the basis for arriving at the decision on 27 per cent reservation for OBCs. This is to answer the Supreme Court’s queries about the basis for the decision. In an interview with a television channel, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said, “As I understand, there is no ground to review whether there should be reservation or not. If a review means questioning the justification of reservations, I say No.”

In the meantime, the Planning Commission has come up with a medium to long-term strategy to find meet the resources for expansion of the

intake capacity of central educational institutions.

It involves, among other steps, upgradation of at

least 20 universities in five years and a merit-cummeans

based loan and a scholarship programme.

This is contained in the Approach Paper for the

Eleventh Plan (2007-2012) submitted to Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh earlier this month.

The CPI(M) on its part has said that the

Manmohan Singh Government should strengthen

the infrastructure in central education institutions

before introducing 27 per cent reservation for OBCs

from the next academic year. At the Central

Committee meeting in Hyderabad, the party said,

these should be a commensurate increase in the

number of seats in these institutions so that the

share of the general category students does not

suffer. The Central Committee passed a resolution

urging the Government to ensure that the benefits

of reservation reach the needy sections.

The BJP has demanded a mid-term economic

review by June-end as it said, “economic indicators

are worrisome. “ The party said inflation has been

rising and is expected to get worse with the recent

increase in the prices of petroleum products.