Merit, space for gen students will be intact: Oversight panel

New Delhi, May 31 (UNI) The Oversight Committee set up to oversee implementation of the reservation policy for higher education, today said it was working on the principle of ''expansion, inclusion and exellence'' while pursuing its objective.

''The level of general category students and merit will be maintained while giving 27 per cent quota to Other Backward Classes(OBCs) in institutions of higher learning,'' Committee chairman Veerappa Moily told reporters here after the second meeting of the panel.

Today's meeting of the committee which had been set up with the approval of the Prime Minister to help implement the government decision on reservation and suggest seat increases, was attended, among others, by eminent scientist Dr R A Mashelkar.

Mr Moily said the students should have no cause for agitation now as the government and the Supreme Court both were seized of the matter. They must trust these institutions, he added.

In reply to a question, he said he would seek clarification from the government on whether the committee was to consider the issue of excluding creamy layers of the OBCs from the benefits of reservation.

When asked if it would be possible to implement the decision by the 2007 academic session given the short time to resolve the issues involved, Mr Moily said, ''We will adopt innovative methods.

Yesterday and today we met and discussed everything, and now the committee understands its scope and mandate.'' He said the country's best brains had participated in today's meeting. ''With these fine minds, we would certainly be able to resolve the contentious issues and find a way out,'' he added.

Mr Moily said the third meeting of the commitee will be held on June 8 and chairmen of the sub-committees would also participate.

Replying to a question about the apprehensions expressed by some experts, including chairmen of the sub-groups, about the short time at hand to add additional infrastructure for the proposed increase in seats, Mr Moily said their concerns were real, but today's was an age of technology and infrastructure could be put up in a very short time.

The 13-member committee, set up on May 29 in the wake of intensification of the anti-quota stir, is headed by Administrative Reforms Commission chairman Mr Moily and includes some of the top technocrats and administrators.

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