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Don't dilute reservations in any manner: DMK


NEW DELHI, AUG 6 (PTI)
Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is engaged in evolving consensus on the quota for OBCs, the DMK has demanded that the reservations should not be "diluted in any manner".

"I strongly insist that the UPA government should respect and respond to the people's mandate by immediately extending reservation to the OBCs at all levels in all institutions under the government of India without any dilution," DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

The chief of the DMK, which is a key ally of the Central government, rued that reservations were denied to the OBCs since 1950 in educational institutions, state-run units and the Central administration.

"Thus the social justice to the OBCs was denied and delayed for more than four decades. Delayed social justice is denied human rights for the OBCs," he said.

Despite Kaka Kalelkar Commission and the Mandal Commission emphatically recommending reservations for OBCs in education and employment in consonance with Article 340 of the Constitution, "we are still making an irrational debate over implementing the reservations for the OBCs", Karunanidhi said.

Under these circumstances, Karunanidhi said the Centre should not give in to the "unjust" demands of the anti-reservation lobby, who form five to 10 per cent of the country's population.

"They suggest to implement the reservation for OBCs in a phased manner, to apply creamy layer concept and to increase the seats for general category, I am of the firm opinion that if these demands are accepted it would amount to preferentially empower the empowered at the cost of oppressing the oppressed. It is strange to note that the creamy layer concept is not applied for the unreserved category till date," he said.

Karunanidhi said the reservation for OBCs in education and employment is the "surest route to empower the hitherto socially oppressed sections of the society".

The Common Minimum Programme of the government has accepted the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs "without caveats", he said adding consequently the people, especially the OBCs and dalits, solidly "stood behind us and voted us topower at the Union level".

He pointed out the Tamil Nadu assembly has unanimously passed a resolution for immediately implementing the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in all educational institutions of the Centre by bringing an ordinance in this regard.

No clubbing of categories for quotas: SC
[ 8 Aug, 2006 2233hrs ISTPTI ]


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NEW DELHI: Holding clubbing of two classes of people for reservation as "unreasonable", the Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that state cannot treat unequals as equals.

"In our opinion, the amalgamation of two classes of people for reservation would be unreasonable as two different classes are treated similarly which is in violation of the mandate of Article 14 of the Constitution which is to treat similar similarly and to treat different differently.

"It is well settled that to treat unequals as equals also violated Article 14," a Bench comprising Justice AR Lakshmanan and Justice LS Panta said.

The ruling was delivered while setting aside the verdict of the Jharkhand High Court affirming the decision of the State Government to amulgate the two classes, Extremely Backward Class and Backward Class, and the reduction of reservation from 12 per cent and nine per cent respectively to 14 per cent only for the purpose of admission in professional educational institution.

Jharkhand Government, through a notification on October 10, 2002 had amalgated the two classes for reservation.

Holding the decision as "arbitrary" and "unreasonable", Justice Lakshmanan, writing the judgement for the Bench, said "the state has failed to show any new circumstances except for a bald statement that the same was done after careful application of mind and due deliberation by the highest policy making body, i.e the Council of Ministers".

The court said while clubbing the two classes the state was devoid of any material or empirical data to indicate that the circumstances had been changed and it had also not undertaken any study or research or work.

Cost of new quotas: Rs 165 billion and counting
The Rediff Special | George Iype
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August 08, 2006
The United Progressive Alliance government's decision to introduce 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in higher educational institutions will cost the exchequer Rs 16,563.34 crore, or Rs 165.63 billion.

The Oversight Committee -- set up to draw up a roadmap for the new quota regime and headed by former Karnataka chief minister M Veerappa Moily -- that submitted its interim report to the Prime Minister's Office last week has projected the estimated expenditure spread over a period of five years to implement the new reservation policy.

Out of this amount, the non-recurring component should be Rs 9,092.96 crore (Rs 90.92 billion), and recurring component for the Eleventh Plan period should be Rs 7,470.38 crore (Rs 74.70 billion).

After the Eleventh Plan period, the expenditure will move over to the non-Plan side.

The interim report of the Committee says there is certainly a case for increasing the Five Year Plan and budgetary allocations to the higher education sector.

The money is going to be needed for:

Creating more education infrastructure to admit more students. That means for new college and hostel buildings, additional laboratories, library facilities, books, furniture and equipment, computer laboratories, campus wireless connectivity, video conferencing and information technology enabled classrooms.
Appointment of new faculty members, reworking their remuneration, reorientation of relevant courses and strengthening research capacity of institutions.
'These quantitative estimates have to taken as thumb-rule projections and will need to go through the normal vetting and analysis by the Planning Commission and Finance Ministry,' the interim report says.

'The additional resources to be generated to give effect to the policy decision of reservation should not be a one-time affair. It should be ensured that the higher education sector is not starved of funds, particularly as a key role has to be played by government institutions and students should not be deprived of education on account of limited resources,' it stresses.

The report also says a mechanism for funding higher education through loans and scholarships would have to be looked at for poor students.

The report points out that funding for higher education in India is extremely low.

'India spends only 0.37 per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on higher education. That being the case, access to the institutions of higher learning in India is limited. Only 8 per cent of the relevant age group go to these institutions. This compares poorly with the experience of many developing countries where the corresponding number is between 20 to 25 per cent,' the report notes.

Therefore, it says, what is needed is a quantum leap in terms of opportunity for access to these institutions of higher learning.

'Clearly, our approach should be to create an environment in which higher education becomes available to almost everyone who seeks it,' the report says.

'The fact remains that social change is always a difficult hurdle to negotiate,' the report says. 'It has taken advanced countries many years to cross the hurdles of territorial and social backwardness. Long-term vision of excellence should not be held hostage to short-term gains, however attractive they may be.'

No OBC quota in pvt institutes, phased rollout in IITs, IIMs
Akshaya Mukul
[ 10 Aug, 2006 0114hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


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NEW DELHI: It is becoming increasingly likely that OBC reservation in admission will be confined to government-aided institutions, even as unaided institutions like Symbiosis, Manipal Academy and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research may be left out of the quota umbrella for now.

The government has also decided to roll out quota in aided institutions— IITs, IIMs, AIIMS,Indian Institute of Science, National Institute of Design, School of Planning and Architecture, among others — in a phased manner.

In a resolution of sorts within the divided government, two draft reservation bills — one for aided and another for unaided institutions — have been prepared by the HRD ministry and sent to several ministries for comments. But indications from within the government are that while it would press for the reservation bill on aided institutions in the Monsoon session itself, the one on unaided institutions might get delayed.

The cabinet will take the final call on reservation for 'creamy layer' among OBCs. A senior minister termed the move, "The middle path of Congress at work. The private education lobby's political clout has worked while government can still argue in Parliament that it is serious about reservation in unaided institutions and showcase that bill." He expects the twin-bill move to pass muster with allies like DMK and PMK.

While the draft bill for aided institutions proposes staggered implementation of quota, the one for unaided institutions pitches for implementation at one go besides proposing fee and admission norms.

Docs want Ramadoss to pay
[ 10 Aug, 2006 0111hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


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NEW DELHI: The Resident Doctors' Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is filing a petition for contempt of court in the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday against health minister Dr A Ramadoss and health secretary P Hota, for not releasing the salaries of doctors who were on anti-quota strike in May.

The move drew a quick response from the government with the Union health secretary, P Hota telling TOI that the salaries of AIIMS Director would be released in a week's time. He also denied that government had deliberately delayed the implementation of the top court's order.

The Supreme Court on July 17 had directed the government to release salary of the doctors immediately, though not for the entire duration of the strike.

A bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice L S Panta had clarified that the medicos will get salary only from May 14 to 30, the day the apex court had asked them to resume their duties.

The medicos had sought salary of period beginning May 14 to June 3. However, even though doctors from all other institutes have received their pay, doctors in AIIMS have not been paid as yet, 22 days after the SC passed the order.

According to Resident Doctors' Association president Dr Vinod Patra, "This is another instance when Ramadoss has shown how he wants to control the institute and do as he wills.

Even though the SC asked him to release salaries, he has not done so, only for doctors in AIIMS. We don't plan to start another strike. We will fight this tyranny legally."

Health secretary P Hota told TOI "the SC order has been sent to the Cabinet because a rule already exists about no work no way. For relaxation of the rule, we need to get cabinet approval. It is just a formality.

The salaries will be released in a week's time." Hota denied having held on to the salary of only doctors from AIIMS. In reply, a doctor from Maulana Azad Medical College confirmed that they had received their salary a long time back.

Lalu calls for consensus on OBCs reservation issue


NEW DELHI, AUG 9 (PTI)
Differences within UPA on reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions refused to die down with Railway Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad today dismissing PMK leader S Ramadoss's charge that he was "oscillating" on the issue and underscored the need for consensus.

Reacting to Ramadoss's charge, the RJD chief said that his party was part of the government and "we have to understand the difficulties of the government. We all are part of the UPA government and should talk among ourselves to reach a consensus on any issue".

He said "PMK chief came to him and talked about reservation for OBCs. I told him that he and his party have been victims of Mandal Commission and were accused of dividing the society.

"But this does not mean that we are not not for OBC reservation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says that it would be difficult to implement the scheme in one phase and could be implemented in phases".

The Railway Minister also rejected Ramadoss's view that he (Prasad) has created confusion by saying that he was not forthcoming on the issue.

"We are for reservation. We don't need any certificate from anybody. Ramadoss has given Certificate to JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, who is aligning with those (BJP) who have opposed OBC reservation inside and outside Parliament", he said.

Don't dilute OBC quota, say MPs from Tamil Nadu


NEW DELHI, AUG 10 (PTI)
Stepping up pressure for implementing reservations for OBCs in elite educational institutions, MPs of Tamil Nadu's ruling Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him not to dilute the quota.

Union ministers and MPs belonging to the DMK, Congress and PMK requested the Prime Minister to implement the 27 per cent reservations immediately as promised in the DPA manifesto and a decision of the UPA coordination committee.

As this quota was likely to result in the overall development of OBCs and bring them at par with other comunities, the reservations should be extended to OBCs in all higher educational institutions run by the Central government, said a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister by the MPs.

DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had written to the Prime Minister last week, saying the Centre should not accept the "unjust" demand of anti-reservationists to implement the quota in a phased manner, to apply the creamy layer concept and to increase the seats for general category.

"I am of the firm opinion that if these demands are accepted it would amount to preferentially empowering the empowered at the cost of oppressing the oppressed," he had said.

The MPs said the Prime Minister assured that he would see what best could be done.

U P govt to bring bill on reservation in private edu instts


LUCKNOW, AUG 11 (PTI)
Uttar Pradesh government is planning to bring in a bill to replace the ordinance providing reservation in private educational institutions in the assembly session beginning August 21.

A decision to this effect was taken by the state cabinet today, Chief Secretary N C Bajpai told reporters here.

It may be recalled that although there had been provision for reservation in private education institutions in the state, the government had promulgated an ordinance two months ago in compliance with a Supreme Court order in this regard.

Moily rules out bulldozing proposal for 27 per cent quota


NEW DELHI, AUG 12 (PTI)
Amid hiccups over a consensus on OBC quota, Oversight Committee Chairman Veerappa Moily has ruled out any "bulldozing" of the proposal for 27 per cent reservation in elite and Central educational institutions.

He also asserted that protecting the excellence of educational institutions would be the "main theme".

"There is no question of bulldozing the implementation of 54 per cent. We are clear about it...I will examine institution-wise and decide whether they can go in one go or in phases," he told Karan Thapar's 'Devil's Advocate' programme on CNN-IBN.

The Committee set up to prepare a roadmap for the 27 per cent OBC reservation would take a holistic approach, he said adding that he has "an open mind" about introducing the 54 per cent increased seats in a phased manner rather than at one go.

"It's an open-ended decision. I'm keeping my mind open, this side or that...some institutioins may come forward and say that with the kind of proposals made by the Oversight Committee we can go at one go. That is likely to happen. And some institutions will say it is impossible even if all the facilities are lying there," Moily said.

Asked specifically whether the Committee would allow individual institutions to decide on the implementation, he said "very true, very true".

Moily admitted that all the five sub-groups, which have recently submitted their interim reports to the Committee, "have said it is not possible to implement at one go. It has to be phased".

The former Karnataka Chief Minister said that he would not attempt to persuade the sub-groups to change their mind. Instead he would hold extensive meetings with all the institutions as well as with experts from outside to understand their reasons before the Oversight Committee takes a final decision would be based on "a holistic approach".

He said that he has convened a meeting of governing council chairmen and apex council chairman on August 17 and invited experts from all over the country on August 28 and 29 to "ask them what should be the process".

The Committee was asked to submit its final report to the Government by August 31.

Dismissing the dissent expressed by Planning Commission Member Bhalchandra Mungekar and UGC Chairman Sukhdev Thorat that question of staggering the implementation was beyond the remit of the Committee, he emphasised that protecting the excellence of educational institutions was "the main theme".

"That is their personal opinion. I don't think a personal opinion will have an overarching influence over the entire Oversight Committee. The Oversight Committee consists of many people and the views of everybody will be taken into consideration. Ultimately the main theme of not disturbing the excellence will prevail on all the institutions," he said.

Asked specifically not disturbing excellence would be main theme and everything else would be subordinate, he said "very true, very true".

Asked about the issue of excluding the OBC creamy labour from the quota regime, Moily described it as a "debatable point" and insisted that this was part of the remit of the Committee.

"After all, the policy of implementation is within the jurisdiction of the Oversight Committee. So we are taking the design of implementation into this and the creamy layer is one component of the implementation process and implementation design", he said.

When pointed out that five Committee members reportedly observing that the issue of excluding the creamy layer was outside the purview of the Committee, Moily ticked them off for raising the issue in public and asked them to instead keep an open mind. "I think it can be taken up in the final report", he said.

Moily was asked why the cut-off mark for OBCs was not pegged at the same level as SC/STs and whether as a result, a higher cut off mark would effectively underine reservations for OBCs.

"OBCs are not equivalent to SC/ST...the ide a is not to degrade these institutions to enable the OBC students to get in. I want the OBC students to go to institutions which have enhance prestige. After all, that is in their interest... I don't want to compromise on excellence", Moily added.

Final report on Aug 31: Moily


CHENNAI, AUG 13 (PTI)
The Oversight Committee, set up to prepare a roadmap for reservations for OBCs in elite educational institutions, would submit its final report to the Centre on August 31, Committee Chairman Veerappa Moily said here today.

He told reporters at Chennai airport that some reports were awaited by the sub groups under the Committee and once they were received, the final report would be submitted to the central government.

"We (the UPA government at the Centre) are committed to implementing the 27 per cent reservation. There is no going back on that", he added.