IIMs fate on hold till Wednesday

The HRD Minister sets all speculations to rest stating that the earlier ministry directive stands, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Apr 25, 2007, 02:32:23 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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HRD minister Arjun Singh is allow some admissions in IIMs in a bid to break ice with fledging top B-schools. A directive in this regard is expected on Wednesday, a day after the government’s plea for early hearing of OBC quota case by a higher bench was accepted by the Supreme Court.

A senior ministry official told HT that all the facts have been placed before the minister and a decision is likely to be taken tomorrow. The ministry had weighted the pros and corns of delaying the admissions in IIMs till May 8, the date for hearing the case. The ministry had favoured allowing admissions in IIMs on basis of consistent demand of the IIM directors.

The ministry officials had spoken to most of the IIM directors after the court accepting the government’s plea for early hearing seeking their views on further delay in admissions. Most IIMs favour early resolution of the crises citing that further delay in admissions can have adverse impact on the academic session of IIMs.

Government officials said the IIMs have suggested different models for admissions to avert any crises including allowing admissions to OBC candidates once the issue is resolved with the Supreme Court. The IIMs have told the ministry that admitting OBC students now could result in contempt of the court.

The government is also wondering whether to allow additional intake of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates along with general category students or with the admissions for OBC students later. The seats of SC/ST candidates have gone up in wake of the government deciding to increase intake by 54 per cent to accommodate 27 per cent reservation for OBCs without reducing admissions for general category students.

Arjun Singh has raised some hope for resolution of the issue when he said that the ministry would try to resolve the issue by Tuesday evening. But, the decision was deferred till Wednesday by Singh after holding discussions with ministry officials till late in the night. Singh in the afternoon had said that the government was considering various options available to resolve the issue with IIMs and reiterated that all IIMs were cooperating with the ministry.

The minister wondered whose rights were being violated by implementation of OBC quota. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has made it clear that quota would be without any prejudice to other general category students and also insisted on the increase in the intake so that the ration of general category was not reduced, he said.

On the court’s observation that why government was rushing through the implementation when it has waited for 57 years, Singh snapped, “I am not getting any out of this. It was Parliament’s decision to give OBC’s reservation”. He also ruled out a possibility of an all party meeting on OBC quota saying there is unanimity on the issue among all parties.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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