Hunger strikers hit by exhaustion

WHILE THE hunger strike by medicos entered the fifth day, the government was hard at work, trying to find a formula for implementing OBC quota. At the AIIMS, more than 90 medicos collapsed of hunger on Thursday. While they were being wheeled into the hospital, the students of IIT-Delhi joined the agitation. The slogan was the same: the government should roll back the proposal to hike quota.

WHILE THE hunger strike by medicos entered the fifth day, the government was hard at work, trying to find a formula for implementing OBC quota.

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At the AIIMS, more than 90 medicos collapsed of hunger on Thursday. While they were being wheeled into the hospital, the students of IIT-Delhi joined the agitation. The slogan was the same: the government should roll back the proposal to hike quota.

That does not seem likely. The special Group of Ministers, which is looking into the question of OBC quota, has favoured the implementation of reservation from July 2006 when the new academic year begins. The number of seats in higher-education institutes will also be hiked alongside.  Apart from the three sGoM members - Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram -- Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar also participated in the discussions on Thursday morning.

The ministers said institutions should be allowed to determine the number of seats they would hike on the basis of the infrastructure facilities and the number of teachers they had.