VCs, IIT heads to brief Arjun on quota

Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has called a meeting of the heads of all Central educational institutions here for Wednesday to discuss their preparedness for implementing reservation for the Other Backward Classes from the coming academic year.

Vice-Chancellors of all Central universities and directors of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management are expected to attend.

The heads of the institutions will brief the Minister on their plans for the first year, including the increase in seats to factor in OBC reservation and an equal number of general category students, faculty availability and an assessment of additional funds required.

As per the Ministry’s directive — issued on April 20 in the wake of the Supreme Court order upholding the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 — every institution can plan its own schedule provided 27 per cent reservation for the OBCs is in place within three years and there is no reduction in the share of general category seats.

Also, the institutions can fix the reservation criteria in keeping with their standards, but the cut-off should be such that a sufficient number of eligible OBC candidates are available as per “the directions/observations of the court in this regard.”