Bill on quota in pvt schools deferred

The Constitution amendment Bill providing for reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in unaided private and professional educational institutions has hit a major roadblock with different parties and a section of MPs seeking further additions in it. This forced the government to defer its introduction in the Lok Sabha today.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had yesterday demanded the inclusion of all minority institutions in its purview, got yet another forum to lend weight to its opposition to the Bill.

The Parliamentary Forum of Other Backward Class MPs, after an emergency meeting today, demanded that other backward castes and most backward castes should also be included in it.

The forum, which has MPs from most political parties as members, threatened to oppose the Bill at the introduction stage itself forcing Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh to write a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and seek deferment of its introduction, BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj told reporters here.

She said about 50 MPs including Sachin Pilot (Congress) took part in the meeting where it was decided to demand that specific reference to the OBCs/MBCs be made in the provisions of the Bill.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) said the issue of regulating fees should also be taken into account while going ahead with the amendment. "If reservation exists but fees are exorbitantly high, those eligible may not be actually able to access higher education," Vasudeb Acharya and Nilotpal Basu (both MPs) said.

They, however, said they were not opposed to the Bill per se as they were for "positive discrimination" favouring the SCs and STs.

In a separate development, 10 Lok Sabha members allegedly involved in cash-for-question scam have submitted their replies to the inquiry committee instituted by the Speaker to look into the veracity of the allegations.

"All the 10 MPs have replied to the show cause notices," committee chairman PK Bansal told reporters. The committee has top submit its report by December 21.

QUOTA POLITICS

The Parliamentary Forum of Other Backward Class MPs demanded that other backward castes and most backward castes should also be included in it

The CPI(M) said the issue of regulating fees should also be taken into account while going ahead with the amendment for the rise in collection