Send us detailed note on quota proposals: PMO to Arjun

With the HRD Ministry’s move on quota kicking up a row, the Prime Minister has decided to step in. The PMO has asked the Ministry to send a “detailed note” on the proposed bill to extend 27 per cent quota for OBCs in premier educational institutions.

With the HRD Ministry’s move on quota kicking up a row, the Prime Minister has decided to step in. The PMO has asked the Ministry to send a “detailed note” on the proposed bill to extend 27 per cent quota for OBCs in premier educational institutions.

Sources told The Indian Express that the PMO’s letter, which cited “recent reports” on the proposed bill, wanted a clearer picture on the issue. The HRD Ministry had drawn plans to bring the bill in the Parliament session starting tomorrow.

Members of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) are also meeting the Prime Minister tomorrow over the quota issue. The NKC, which works directly under the PMO, had disapproved—it was a 6-2 vote—of HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s quota proposals.

Though the PM hasn’t spoken his mind on the issue so far, he did emphasise, while speaking at the opening of the Goa campus of BITS Pilani, the need for “increasing the number of seats at all levels of technical education, from ITIs to IITs and also improve the quality of training at all levels”. He also reiterated the Government’s “commitment to increase access to education, at all levels of the knowledge pyramid”.

shubhajit.roy@expressindia.com

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