Under stress from United Progressive Alliance allies, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has convened an emergency meeting of the Cabinet on Monday to clear the Bill aimed at providing 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in government-run higher educational institutions.
Confirming the Cabinet meeting, official sources on Sunday said that it had been summoned for considering the single-point agenda of OBC reservation on which Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh had run into problems with the Election Commission on the eve of the recent assembly polls.
The move is apparently aimed at introducing the Bill before the end of the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament.
It comes in the wake of mounting demands from UPA allies, particularly from those from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Democratic Progressive Alliance in Tamil Nadu and a tiff last week between Pattali Makkal Katchi chief Dr S Ramadoss and Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad.
While DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had personally written a letter to Dr Singh earlier this month, virtually warning the Centre against delaying the proposal, a DPA parliamentarians' delegation from the state, which included Congress members, had called on the prime minister, asking him to immediately meet the demand.
Dr Ramadoss had also written a