labels: industry - general, economy - general
Will the OBC Quota Bill be passed this monsoon session? news
17 August 2006

The UPA government is set to begin its discussions on the new reservation proposals for OBCs in higher educational institutes, CNBC-TV18 shares with domain-b its report.

Arjun Singh, HRD Minister says that the intention of the government is to introduce the OBC Quota Bill in the current session. He has been working at it from the word go. But the final draft of the OBC Quota Bill, that is likely to be introduced in Parliament next week, will be a diluted version of what Arjun Singh originally had in his mind.

The bill that''s raked up enough controversy on the issue of how and when and in what percentage seats in government aided educational institutes should be reserved for OBCs, will now provide for a staggered implementation of quotas as opposed to getting 27 out of every 100 students from OBC quota from the next academic year, something the HRD ministry wanted to do at one sweep.

The staggered approach is something the IITs and IIMs want. It gives them time to increase the number of seats so that the general category intake is not disturbed.

For institutes that do not get government funds, a separate bill has been drafted, but it''s unlikely to be introduced in the current session. The challenge now for the government to have a political consensus on the new bills as some of the UPA allies from the South are opposed to this approach.

The Prime minister''s office this time took extra care in bringing about a consensus on the issue. All the UPA allies were consulted separately as the PM tried to convince them on adopting a staggered approach on OBC reservations.

Though the battle ahead might be not that easy, the question really is whether the bill will be passed by Parliament in this monsoon session or will it get further delayed if it is sent to the standing committee.


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Will the OBC Quota Bill be passed this monsoon session?