Parliament passes Bill for OBC reservation

New Delhi, Dec 18 (UNI) With the Rajya Sabha passing the OBC Reservation Bill by voice vote, Parliament today approved the Bill providing for reservation in admission for students belonging to the Other Backward Classes to institutions maintained or aided by the Central government.

The Bill had already been passed in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The Bill titled The Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admission) Bill, 2006 and piloted by Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, was passed in Rajya Sabha. A BJP demand for a division in votes was not accepted by the Chair as they had sought it after Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan had announced passage of the Bill.

Two amendments moved by Mr S S Ahluwalia (BJP) for providing reservation for minority-run institutions were negated by 93-24 votes, paving way for the passage of the Bill.

Replying to the discussion, Mr Singh said the passage of the Bill was a major historic step in nearly six decades of history after independence in providing the reservation benefits for the students belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in certain educational institutions established or maintained or aided by the Central Government.

The Bill prescribed an outer limit of three years for all these institutions to accomodate these sections of students and the government will leave no stone unturned to provide resources for upgrading their infrastructure to achieve the goal.

He said it was not possible to bring minority-run institutions or the unaided private institutions in the Bill's orbit. The Government, he said, would soon come out with a Bill to provide reservation for the OBCs. However, to ensure that this Bill was complied by minority-run institutions, it was not immediately possible as it would require an amendment to the Constitution.

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