Quota backlog behind creamy layer review

According to data for the 1st year of admissions in IITs and IIMs, over 90 pc of the short-listed OBC candidates failed to prove that they did not belong to creamy layer, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jun 22, 2008, 01:53:32 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Non-fulfillment of OBC quota for the first year of admissions in IITs and IIMs because over 90 per cent were of backward students falling in the ambit of creamy layer could be a possible reason for increasing the annual income limit for defining creamy layer in a bid to fill the seats for the backward classes in coming years.

On the basis of the Supreme Court ruling, the Central government had stipulated Rs 2.5 lakh annual income criteria to define creamy layer for admissions in the institutes of higher learning.

From the admission data emerging from IITs and IIMs, over 90 per cent of the short-listed candidates failed to prove they did not belong to creamy layer.

It meant that of nine per cent seats reserved for OBCs in IITs only 7.5 could be filled. Of the 8,650 candidates called for counselling admissions on basis of JEE result only 654 were selected after it was found that 92 per cent fell in the ambit of creamy layer.

In all, 3.11 lakh students, including 72,000 from OBCs appeared to fill 6872 seats in IITs.

In the case of IIMs, where only four to six per cent seats were reserved for OBCs, about two per cent could be filled because of absence of OBC candidates fulfilling the criteria defined by the HRD ministry. IIMs had been claiming that 15 per cent seats reserved for SC students remains because not enough SC students are available.

Hence, students from general category fulfill vacant seats meant for reserved category.

The data is just an indication of what is in store for the coming years when the number of seats reserved for OBCs will increase. In IITs, there will be nine per cent per annum increase in OBC quota in the next two years for 27 per cent reservation, as mandated by the Central law, by 2010. Similarly, the quotas in IIMs will increase in the next two years.

But, the answer to the question on how premier institutes of higher learning would fill the quota lies in the deliberations of National Commission of Backward Classes on creamy layer. There was a unanimous view at the panel’s national convention recently that the annual income bar should be raised to Rs 4-5 lakh for defining creamy layer, meaning that OBCs with monthly income of Rs 40,000 would be eligible to get quota benefit.

The commission is expected to submit its report on re-defining creamy layer for jobs and admissions by end of June.

The government may take an early decision on the commission's recommendation to claim electoral benefits before the next general elections slated for next year.

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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