The Union Cabinet on Monday cleared the Bill proposing to reserve 27% seats in all educational institutions, barring the specialised ones, run and aided by the central government after quota hawks stubbed out the suggestion to keep the rich and affluent among the “backwards” out of the reservation ambit.
The Bill, which will be sent to the Standing Committee after being introduced in Parliament after Wednesday, proposes a phase-wise rollout of the OBC quota, starting with those institutions which can implement it without any reduction in the existing general category seats. Institutions which don’t have the infrastructure to add enough number of seats to ensure that there was no diminution of the general category seats will have a maximum of three years to put the infrastructure in place for the purpose.
The identification of institutions — essentially specialised research institutions dealing with space science, nuclear energy, defence and medical sciences — is to be completed by Tuesday, clearing the way for the introduction of the Bill on August 25.
The discussion in the Cabinet stretched to more than two hours after ministers drawn from Congress like Vayalar Ravi joined hands with the staunch pro-OBC camp comprising representatives of RJD, DMK and PMK, to veto the provision in the Bill to keep the law ministry to keep the “creamy layer” among OBCs outside the reservations scheme.
An accompanying note had identified “those holding constitutional offices or particular services, practising professions of a particular kind or having an income level” as belonging to socially advanced members/creamy layer of OBCs. These are the criteria used for denying job quota to the upper crust among the OBCs.
Its retention in the Bill would have ruled out wards of ministers, governors, gazetted officials, engineers, successful laywers and doctors, rich businessmen, those with big landholdings as the beneficiaries of the quota in educational institutions.
The provision was justified by the law ministry in a note citing the Supreme Court judgement which, while upholding the extension of reservations to OBCs in central services, had asked for excluding the “creamy layer”.
The Bill, which will be sent to the Standing Committee after being introduced in Parliament after Wednesday, proposes a phase-wise rollout of the OBC quota, starting with those institutions which can implement it without any reduction in the existing general category seats. Institutions which don’t have the infrastructure to add enough number of seats to ensure that there was no diminution of the general category seats will have a maximum of three years to put the infrastructure in place for the purpose.
The identification of institutions — essentially specialised research institutions dealing with space science, nuclear energy, defence and medical sciences — is to be completed by Tuesday, clearing the way for the introduction of the Bill on August 25.
The discussion in the Cabinet stretched to more than two hours after ministers drawn from Congress like Vayalar Ravi joined hands with the staunch pro-OBC camp comprising representatives of RJD, DMK and PMK, to veto the provision in the Bill to keep the law ministry to keep the “creamy layer” among OBCs outside the reservations scheme.
An accompanying note had identified “those holding constitutional offices or particular services, practising professions of a particular kind or having an income level” as belonging to socially advanced members/creamy layer of OBCs. These are the criteria used for denying job quota to the upper crust among the OBCs.
Its retention in the Bill would have ruled out wards of ministers, governors, gazetted officials, engineers, successful laywers and doctors, rich businessmen, those with big landholdings as the beneficiaries of the quota in educational institutions.
The provision was justified by the law ministry in a note citing the Supreme Court judgement which, while upholding the extension of reservations to OBCs in central services, had asked for excluding the “creamy layer”.