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OBC quota in AIIMS from this year: Ramadoss
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NewsByte on 11 April, 2008 10:40:00
 
New Delhi:  A day after the Supreme Court upheld 27 per cent reservation for
Other Backward Classes in higher educational institutions, the Central
Government today said that the new system of OBC reservation would be
implemented in the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
from the coming academic session. AIIMS was the epicentre of protests during the
anti-quota agitations two years back.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in the city, Union Health
Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said that 'hopefully AIIMS will get quota this year'.
On the issue of creamy layer among OBCs being excluded from the ambit of the
reservation, the Health Minister said, "Since the Mandal Commission allowed
quota in employment in 1990, only 5.3 per cent seats have been filled out of the
27 per cent". "This is what will happen to this quota also if the creamy layer
is kept out," he said.
Ramadoss, however, said the issue of the exclusion of the creamy layer and
children of MPs and MLAs would be taken up at both the Cabinet and the UPA
level. "There are so many ex-MPs who have fallen on hard times and some MLAs
even do not take home their salaries. To keep their children out of the
reservation ambit would be unfair," he added. (PTI)