LS: Pvt quota bill introduced

Braving the NDA’s opposition and in spite of the CPI(M)’s reservations, the government introduced the contentious Constitution amendment Bill in the Lok Sabha providing for reservation in unaided educational institutions.

HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who piloted the Bill, said the main objective of introducing the Bill was to provide reservation for backward classes, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in unaided educational institutions, which was currently not available. He said Article 30(1) gave minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions and this needed to be protected. The amendment has been moved for introduction of Clause 5 in Article 15 and excludes minority institutions from its purview as mentioned in Article 30 (1). The BJP had earlier decided to oppose the Bill and BJP member Santosh Gangwar said the Bill did not take care of reservation for OBCs and demanded that it be available in both aided and unaided educational institutions.

However, the Bill received the support of the Samajwadi Party. Ram Gopal Yadav, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, said there was no further confusion on reservations in aided and unaided educational institutions, and OBCs would get reservation under the Bill.

Suggestions from MPs included one from RJD’s D P Yadav, who said provision for reservation for the socially and educationally backward classes should be included in the Bill, while V. Radhakrishnan of the CP(IM) and C K Chandrappan of the CPI suggested that it should be left to the states to identify minority institutions.