New Delhi: The 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) will be implemented from June 2007, a meeting of the UPA coordination committee and Left parties decided on Tuesday night.
"The percentage of reservation for OBCs will be fixed at 27 per cent. Legislation for this purpose will be brought in Parliament in the monsoon session," said Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee after a joint resolution was passed at the meeting.
The number of seats in educational institutions under the purview of the Central government will be increased to ensure the interests of all students, said Mukherjee.
Once the legislation is passed by Parliament, the new reservation will be implemented in all Central government education institutions from the academic session starting June 2007.
The resolution to implement the 93rd Amendment to the Constitution, which provides for reservation, was adopted after HRD Minister Arjun Singh made a presentation at the meeting.
The meeting, which was presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also decided that an oversight committee would monitor the implementation of the new quota.
Smaller groups comprising deans, directors and vice-chancellors of educational institutions will be formed to work out the details. The oversight committee will put together the recommendations of these groups and submit a comprehensive report by August 31.
CPI leaders A B Bardhan and D Raja said the Left parties told the Government that efforts must be made to ensure that the 93rd Amendment is implemented in letter and spirit and people get a clear message on the reservation issue.
The Left leaders said they were quite ''satisfied'' with the meeting and emphasized that the sole agenda of the meeting was reservation.
Delhi doctors, who have been on a ten-day strike against the quota, said the decision was "outrageous".
"The decision is outrageous and audacious," said Dr Shashmit Sarangi, a representative of Youth for Equality, which is leading the doctors’ agitation.
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