OBC quota discussed in state-level meet

While left-ruled states are seeking an exclusion of the creamy layer, states like UP think otherwise, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Oct 20, 2006, 01:42:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Most state government towed the party line on introduction of 27 per cent OBC reservation in private unaided institutes at a conference by the Central government for ascertaining views of stakeholders for introducing 27 per cent OBC reservation in unaided higher education institutions.

The states demanded that the right to legislate on the OBC reservation issue, while agreeing to implement the Constitutional provision by next year.

There was difference of opinion on the issue of whether creamy layer should be included in the ambit of reservation or not. While the state governments under Left parties rule sought exclusion of creamy layer, states like Uttar Pradesh said that creamy layer should not be excluded from the benefit.

The Group of Ministers on Reservation, headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherji had called state Chief Ministers and education ministers for a two-day meeting to hear their views on the introduction of the quota in private unaided institutions. The meeting was also attended by HRD minister Arjun Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

However, most of the state governments decided to stick to their respective party lines. Ministers from the BJP-ruled states demanded that OBC reservation should be applicable to minority education institutions.

Chattisgarh education Minister Ajay Chandrakar and Karnataka education Minister Shankarmurthy said that they told the Central government that religion, geography and language should not be a consideration for introducing reservation.

However, Uttar Pradesh Higher Education Minister Ram Asrey Verma and the state's Technical and Agricultural Education Minister Yogesh Pratap Singh said such institutions had already been excluded from the purview of reservation by a Constitutional amendment.

They, however, said they also wanted that there should be no interference of the Centre in drawing up regulations for implementing the quota plan and it should be implemented in one go.

The representatives of Kerala government demanded a right for the state governments to define minority. Majority of higher education institutions in the state are owned by Christian organisations, defined as minority education institutions by the Central Government. They also reiterated the demand of Left parties that creamy layer should be applied only if the seats are not filled by the poorest of the poor among OBCs.

chetan@hindustantimes.com

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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