Sibal says no to quota hike plan in colleges

Hannover, Apr 26: Indicating stiff opposition to HRD Minister Arjun Singh's proposal for hiking the reservation of seats in the higher educational institutions like the IIMs and IITs, Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal today said,''nothing should be done that will have a negative impact on India's ability to compete in the world.'' In an interaction with the Indian journalists covering the Hannover Fair, 2006, the Science and Technology Minister indicated quite clearly how strong his opposition was to the proposal of the HRD Minister to hike the reservation of seats in the higher educational institutions to 49 per cent.

''No policy should be taken which will dilute the levels of excellence in our research and development and educational institutions. When the west is looking at us for excellence, we should do nothing that will work as a dampener,'' Mr Sibal said.

His remarks against reservation in colleges and universities comes close on the heels of the government giving a burial to another proposal for reservation of employment for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the private sector.

Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath had said earlier here, his ministry would come up with a new Investment Policy that would obviate the need for reservation in jobs.

The Group of Ministers on the reservation in the private sector of which Mr Sibal was a part, could not converge on any consensus since the industry was quite opposed to it. Likewise, his comments against reservation in colleges and universities are quite forthright.

UNI

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