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Quota: More students to join hunger-strike
by Chandrika Jain

      New Delhi: Joining the anti-quota medicos in their agitation against Centre's proposal of quota for OBCs, students of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi began a relay hunger-strike on Monday. Asserting that reservation had not served its purpose for the last 50 years, the agitating JNU and IIT students demanded review of the reservation policy by a judicial commission. About 10 students of the IIT and 12 from JNU are on the hunger strike in their respective campuses. "We want complete rollback of the reservation policy and if the government is implementing it we want it should not be on the basis of caste but on the basis of economic criteria. We believe that there are just two castes of that of the rich and poor," said Shweta, a striking student of JNU. "Government has not given us the proper data or OBC percentage...They have given this reservation blindly for vote bank politics," said Sumit Kishore, another striking student.

      Stepping up the anti-reservation stir, faculty members of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), Safdarjung Hospital and University College of Medical Sciences went on leave en masse while senior doctors of AIIMS will be observing a day-long hunger strike on Tuesday. Interestingly, they will not stop work but will not eat as a mark their protest. On Wednesday, there will be a complete medical shutdown in Delhi. All outpatient departments (OPDs) will be closed. However, emergency and casualty services will continue to function. "Every private hospital to corporate health institute and small clinic to medical college will remain closed on Wednesday in support of the fortnight-long agitation", Dr Vinod Patro, President of AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association said.

      Meanwhile, in a new campaign against quota, some students and resident doctors from AIIMS will visit Kusumpur slum area on Tuesday to ask them whether they were aware of reservation issue. "Supporters from DU, JNU and AIIMS on Tuesday will organise camps inside slum areas in Kusumpur near JNU. We will go there and ask them - are they aware of reservation or what is reservation? We will ask them about their education level and about their economic level," a student of JNU, Shweta said.

      In another development, some medical and engineering students, who have rejected appeals from Prime Minister to withdraw their fortnight-long agitation against caste-based quota in higher education institutes, threatened self-immolation if the Central Government failed to withdraw the controversial move. Some meritorious students also announced to return medals received for academic excellence to the President. In Bhopal, protesting medicos staged mock public hanging and threatened to turn it real if government went ahead with the move.

     Earlier yesterday, the Centre extended a written proposal to the striking doctors in which it has accepted almost entire demands of the striking doctors against implementation of reservation for OBCs in the premier institutions. Union Minister Oscar Fernandes said that number of the existing seats for the general category students would remain intact but the number of seats would be increased to implement the reservation for the students of the backward castes. Fernandes said that the Government has formed an Oversight Committee. The committee, headed by Veerappa Moily, will look into the matter of mobilisation of resources so that the general category seats can be maintained as are available at present. Protests are underway in Delhi and parts of north India for the past 17 days against Centre's decision to introduce a 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Castes students (OBCs) in elite educational institutions.

SC asks Centre to explain OBC quota   (Go To Top)

       New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked the Union Government to explain the basis of reservation for the OBCs. The Apex Court requisitioned this from the Union Government while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on the quota issue this morning. Refusing to stay the Union Government's order - which provides 27.5 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes(OBC) candidates in admissions in institutes of higher learning, the Supreme Court issued notices to the Centre on a PIL challenging the Government notification to provide reservation to the OBCs.

      A vacation bench, comprising Justice Arijit Pasayat and Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta, however, directed the Centre to state in their Counter Affidavit: * What is the basis of determination of OBC. * What are the modalities for implementing the impugned order and what is the basis of arriving at such modalities. * What is the rationale for adoption of norms for determing the OBC. The Court also clarified that it will deal with the question raised by the petitioner, Ashok Kumar Thakur, a senior counsel at the Apex Court, that such a policy shall divide the country on caste basis, appropriately at a later stage. The Court, without making the appeal as part of the order, indicated that the agitating students should now call off their strike in the larger interest of society as well as patients, as this court is now seized of the matter. Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the respondents, including the Centre, accepted the notice and appreciated the sentiments expressed by the apex court that agitating students should call off their agitation. The Court granted eight-weeks time to the respondents to file their response to the PIL and also granted six-weeks further time to the petitioner to file his rejoinder. The apex Court also noted that such a policy has serious social and political ramifications for the country. In the petition, Thakur had asked the court to quash the constitutional amendment on reservation and asked the government to "take affirmative action to remove discrimination, inequality and disparity".

13-member Oversight Committee   (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: A 13-member Oversight Committee, created on the orders of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been tasked with the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of reservations in higher education institutions. Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress party leader Veerappa Moily will be the chairman of the committee. The other 12 members of the committee are as follows: Dr. B. Mungekar, Member, Planning Commission - Member Dr. R. Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR - Member Prof. Sukhadeo K. Thorat, Chairman, UGC -Member Dr. G. Mohan Gopal, Former VC, National Law School of India, Bangalore -Member Dr. R.A Yadav, VC, AICTE - Member Prof. N.K Ganguly, Director General, ICMR -Member Dr. R.V Vaidyanatha Ayyar, Former Secretary to the Government of India -Member Secretary, Department of S and HE-Ex-Officio Member P.C.Hota, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research Education Secretary, Department of Expenditure R.R Shah, Member Secretary, Planning Commission -Member Secretary

     The Committee would inter-alia, look into the following aspects and submit its report by 31st August 2006. i)Implementation of 27% reservation for the OBCs in institutes of higher learning; and ii)Assessment of additional infrastructure and other requirements for increasing the overall availability of seats to a level so that the present level of seats available to the general category students does not decline. The Oversight Committee would get suitable inputs from the following Groups which will go into specific details about Universities and Institutes and submit their recommendations by 31st July 2006, regarding the course of action to be adopted for giving effect to the implementation of reservation in a time- bound manner. Group for Technological/Engineering Institutions Prof. M. Anandakrishnan, former VC, Anna University and former Professor, IIT, Kanpur -Chairman Prof. Sanjay Dhande, Director, IIT, Kanpur -Member Prof. S.K. Dube, Director, IIT, Kharagpur -Member Prof. Sanjeev Bhargava, Director, IIT, Jabalpur -Member Prof. R.P. Dahiya, Director, NIT, Jaipur -Member Prof. N. Balakrishnan, Associate Director, IISc Bangalore - Member Prof. Y.V. Rao, Director, NIT, Warangal -Member Prof. I.M. Mishra, Dean Saharanpur Campus, IIT Roorkee -Member Dr. Indira Rajaraman, Professor, NIPFP -Member Group for Management Institutions Dr. Samuel Paul, former Director, IIM, Bangalore - Chairman Prof. Bakul Dholakia, Director, IIM, Ahmedabad - Member Prof. Krishna Kumar, Director, IIM, Kozhikode - Member Prof. Shekhar Chaudhury, Director, IIM, Kolkata - Member Prof. S.D.Awale, Director, NITIE, Mumbai -Member Prof. Devi Singh, Director, IIM, Lucknow -Member Group for Central Universities Sayed Hamid, former VC, AMU and Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard - Chairman Prof. Panjab Singh, VC, BHU -Member Prof. Deepak Pental, VC, Delhi University -Member Prof. Pramod Tandon, VC, NEHU -Member Prof. Syed E. Hasnain, VC, Hyderabad University - Member Dr. M. Govinda Rao, Professor, NIPFP -Member

     The Terms of reference of the Groups will be as follows: a)To identify in each of the institutions/Universities, the courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level and student intake for the academic session 2007-08, b)To identify in each course, the total number of seats for OBCs and consequently to other categories, c)To identify for each course, the increase in the total number of seats so as to maintain the total availability of seats in the unreserved category, d)To determine the requirement of faculty and other infrastructure for the enhanced intake and to determine the additional requirement of recurring and non-recurring expenditure for the same, e)To suggest phasing of expenditure both recurring and non- recurring, f)To suggest measures, in short term, to be taken by each institute for the enhanced intake from the academic session 2007- 08, g)To suggest any other preparatory or consequential steps and required to be taken in order to implement the policy of reservations.