Quota issue is settled, says Manmohan

SRINAGAR: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh unequivocally affirmed, on Thursday, the Centre’s resolve to set aside 27 per cent seats for Other Backward Classes in institutions of higher education.

“I think the matter is already settled,” he said, on the day on which President APJ Abdul Kalam met a 12-member delegation representing doctors opposed to reservations.

The PM promised to constitute a committee comprising the vice-chancellors of central universities and the directors of IIMs and IITs to determine ways to increase facilities in premier institutions. Such an enhancement, the government believes, will mitigate the effect of reservations on other sections.

The PM said that since the policy would apply only from June 2007, there is still “a lot of time to discuss any practical problem”.

Meanwhile, President Kalam appealed to the doctors to call off their hunger strike. “We respect the President’s appeal. But we are not satisfied,” said Dr Vinod Patro, president of the resident doctors’ association at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and a member of the delegation that met the President.