The Committee headed by Veerappa Moily to suggest ways of implementing the new regime of OBC quotas has made a bunch of suggestions which seem to go well beyond the quotas themselves. The Hindustan Times reports:
Seeking more administrative and financial autonomy in higher educational institutions, the Moily panel sought to end the admission fee subsidy for students in IITs and IIMs, barring post-graduate courses. ...
The panel said the entire fee package should be financed through education loans and the government should stop subsidies. The report said students could repay loans after placements.
While I welcome this particular suggestion (and some of the others), I just don't see how it impacts the quotas.
Update (13 October 2006): Take a look at this in today's ET:
Students pursuing higher education may soon be provided with laptops going by the recommendations of the Oversight Committee. ...
“Every student and every teacher should be given such a device on an ownership basis and the process should be facilitated by bank loans,” the report said.
It's entirely possible that our media, whose hostility to the OBC quotas is well known, are highlighting only the lousy recommendations to make the Moily Committee appear less than credible. I would still blame the Committee for helping the media by offering some opinions which are somewhat extraneous to its main job.
May the institutions could use the money from higher fees to waive the student loans of those who would qualify for the quotas or maybe even subsidize their fees.
ReplyDeleteYou're right.
ReplyDeleteIt seems a case of overstepping, but I am guessing the point is that it is a kind of mollification for those arguing on the grounds of overstretched infrastructure. Now he can show them the money.
I have the moily report with me and I am going through it. I will put up a comment on it in the next couple of days.
ReplyDeleteI think Mr Moily has done a great job given the toughness of his mandate.
There are also some startling facts about OBCs themselves in the appendix. Did you know 22.5% of Indias OBCs live in TN ? Did you know the four southern states + maharashtra contain 88% of Indias OBCs in the top two income deciles. These are the groups that are most likely to get the benefits.
The Moily report is available at the planning commission's website.
ReplyDelete