Friday, August 25, 2006
Quota Bill tabled; medicos call off street protest
NEW DELHI: The quota Bill was tabled in Parliament, was referred to a Standing Committee and junior doctors and other students in the Capital called off their street protest. All by Friday afternoon.
Student leaders said they had feared an immediate passing of the Bill in Parliament and claimed that their protests had made the government put off pushing it immediately. The Bill is now expected to be taken up in the winter session of Parliament after the Standing Committee has worked out the finer details of implementation.
The Bill provides for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions. It is to be made operational from the academic year 2007 and makes no mention of the creamy layer. The Bill was cleared by the Union Cabinet this week.
As the monsoon session of Parliament came to a close, matters cooled down and a huge crowd of demonstrators at Jantar Mantar dispersed. The medicos and students said they were also weighing the option of taking the legal route now to stall the Centre’s reservation move.
Earlier, as the Bill was tabled by HRD minister Arjun Singh in the Lok Sabha, resident doctors from five prestigious hospitals in the Capital were joined by students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and others at Jantar Mantar, shouting slogans against the government, in particular, against the minister. Shouts of Vande Mataram rent the air and the protesters promised a real-life Rang de Basanti ”.
The air was young, electric, angry. Long stretches from Jantar Mantar were cordoned off and the place milled with policemen. Water cannons lay in wait, as they had done on Thursday. So did an ambulance.
Late on Thursday night, junior doctors that had courted arrest, were finally released in the Capital. Resident doctors in Delhi had threatened a shutdown of medical services if their compatriots were not released. Earlier in the day, the police had sprayed protesters outside the Supreme Court with water cannons and shelled them with tear gas. Several medicos and students had courted arrest.
Student leaders said they had feared an immediate passing of the Bill in Parliament and claimed that their protests had made the government put off pushing it immediately. The Bill is now expected to be taken up in the winter session of Parliament after the Standing Committee has worked out the finer details of implementation.
The Bill provides for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in Central educational institutions. It is to be made operational from the academic year 2007 and makes no mention of the creamy layer. The Bill was cleared by the Union Cabinet this week.
As the monsoon session of Parliament came to a close, matters cooled down and a huge crowd of demonstrators at Jantar Mantar dispersed. The medicos and students said they were also weighing the option of taking the legal route now to stall the Centre’s reservation move.
Earlier, as the Bill was tabled by HRD minister Arjun Singh in the Lok Sabha, resident doctors from five prestigious hospitals in the Capital were joined by students from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University and others at Jantar Mantar, shouting slogans against the government, in particular, against the minister. Shouts of Vande Mataram rent the air and the protesters promised a real-life Rang de Basanti ”.
The air was young, electric, angry. Long stretches from Jantar Mantar were cordoned off and the place milled with policemen. Water cannons lay in wait, as they had done on Thursday. So did an ambulance.
Late on Thursday night, junior doctors that had courted arrest, were finally released in the Capital. Resident doctors in Delhi had threatened a shutdown of medical services if their compatriots were not released. Earlier in the day, the police had sprayed protesters outside the Supreme Court with water cannons and shelled them with tear gas. Several medicos and students had courted arrest.
