States ready for Muslim quota in minority institutions

Several states have informed that they have stipulated a 50% quota for minority community in educational institutions run by them, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Nov 16, 2006, 23:34:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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At last, some headstart has been made in reservation for minorities in higher educational institutions. So far, only backwards among minorities got reservation in jobs through 27 per cent OBC quota.

Several states have informed the National Commission for Minority Education Institutions (NCMEI) that they have stipulated a quota of minimum 50 per cent for reservation for minority community in the educational institutions run by minorities. For example, an institution run by Muslims has reserved 50 per cent seats for Muslim students.

Most states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and UP have reserved 50 per cent seats while some like Andhra Pradesh have reserved 70 per cent. In Karnataka, the figure is 60 per cent. "Only there are states like Delhi which have not stipulated any quota for reservation in education institutions run by minorities," a commission official said.

Another exception is Kerala, which is considering district wise identification of minorities, but many minority organisations have moved court against the move.

Invoking reservation in minority run education institutions became imperative after the 93rd Constitutional Amendment notified in January this year exempting minority educational institutions from any reservation for socially and educationally backward classes.

That's not all. The commission has also observed in various orders issued in the last few months that minority educational institutions have a right to admit students and decide on the fee structure.

As per Supreme Court verdict in TM Pai versus State of Karnataka, the minority education institutes can admit students on basis of their own entrance tests, a facility not available to other educational institutions.

The court had also allowed the minority institutions fully autonomy in employment of staff and disciplinary action.

In wake of various Supreme Court judgements and the Constitutional amendment, the commission has asked All India Council for Technical Education and University Grants Commission to set up nodal cells to clear applications from bodies run by minorities to open education institution.

And, the effort appears to have borne fruit as the first Muslim degree college has been opened in Bariapur, West Bengal.

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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