Union Cabinet to consider quota bill

A bill on reservations for Other Backward Castes in central and elite educational institutions like IITs and IIMs is likely to be considered by the Union Cabinet at its meeting on Thursday.

The government is seriously considering introducing the bill in Parliament next week, the last week of the current monsoon session, in view of promises that it would be tabled in this session.

Faced with problems in providing OBC reservations in elite educational institutions in one go, the government is understood to have delinked reservation in aided and unaided instititions. A similar bill for reservations in unaided institutions may be taken up later, after the completion of the work by the Oversight Committee tasked to prepare a roadmap for implementing the 27 per cent quota in higher educational institutions.

Veerappa Moily, who is heading the Oversight Committee, had ruled out any "bulldozing" the proposed reservation in elite and central educational institutions. "There is no question of bulldozing the implementation of 54 per cent (expansion of the capacity of institutions for providing 27 per cent reservation to OBCs). We are clear about it. I will examine institution-wise and decide whether they can go in one go or in phases," he had said, indicating that the implementation could be staggered in view of difficulties faced by some institutions.

Moily has also lined up a series of meetings with chairmen of governing councils and apex councils of various institutions on Thursday and invited experts from across the country on August 28 and 29 to "ask them what should be the process".