Govt announces 13-member panel on quota

NEW DELHI: Moving quickly to bring an end to the quota imbroglio, Government today announced a 13-member committee headed by senior Congress MP Veerappa Moily to look into issue of implementation of 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher education institutions and requirements for increasing seats without reducing the number in general category.

Approved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Oversight Committee with secretaries from the ministries of HRD, Health and Family Welfare, Agriculture and Finance, has been asked to submit its report by August 31, this year.

The committee includes B Mungekar, Member, Planning Commission, R Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR, S K Thorat, UGC Chairman, R A Yadav, Vice Chairman, AICTE, N K Ganguly, Director General, ICMR, G Mohan Gopal, former VC, National Law School and R V Vaidyanatha Ayyar, former Secretary.

Simultaneously, Government also appointed three Groups to go into specific details about Universities and institutes regarding the course of action for giving effect to OBC quota in a time-bound manner.

Under the terms of reference, the Groups will identify the courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level in each of the institutions and universities and student intake for academic session 2007-08.

The groups have also been asked to identify the total number of OBCs and consequently to other categories in each course.