House Panel Upbraids HRD Ministry, UGC on OBC Quota Rules
While students were denied admission in higher technical institutes, OBC candidates were denied jobs.
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While the violent agitation of the Jat community, seeking reservation in government jobs and educational institutions, has been contained for the moment, a parliamentary committee has found to its dismay that the HRD Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) have failed to fill up reserved seats for OBCs, or appoint teachers belonging to such communities in colleges and universities.
The Rajen Gohain Committee on Welfare of OBCs has observed that in most central universities and technical institutes such as IITs, NITs and engineering colleges the “requisite target of securing 27 percent reservation in faculty remains elusive,” as also in the admission of OBC students in these educational institutions.
Though HRD Minister Smriti Irani and other ministers in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government have been trying to convince the academic community that efforts are being made to uplift the social, financial and educational standards of underprivileged sections of the society, the panel’s report exposes the “step-motherly treatment” that Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs have been subjected to.
The Gohain Committee’s Objectives
The committee was set up to examine measures taken by the HRD ministry and the UGC to improve admission and employment opportunities of the underprivileged communities. Parliament will soon consider the Gohain panel’s recommendations. Gohain is a BJP MP from Assam.
In the backdrop of rising discontent among divergent strata of the society, both for and against reservation, in educational institutions and government jobs, the Supreme Court recently made a significant observation saying, that “privilege remains unchanged even after 68 years of independence.”
The apex court had recommended that the Union and state governments do away with quota in institutions of higher education in “national interest”.
OBC Reservation Percentage Low in Varsities
Unmindful of conflicting concerns regarding reservation under Article 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution, the Gohain committee has found that the percentage of reservation for OBC students in central universities is pathetically low. For instance, the University of Jammu has provided 16.30 percent reservation, University of Kashmir 4.40 percent, University of Punjab 20.13 percent, University of Tamil Nadu 19.19 percent, HNB Gharwal University 5.24 percent, University of Delhi 22.70 percent, Rajiv Gandhi University 7 percent and Vishwa Bharati 22.45 percent reservation to OBC students in the 2014-15 academic session.
The situation is equally distressing in IITs and other science and research institutes. The committee says that IIT-Delhi has given 21.52 percent, IIT-Kanpur 18.90 percent, IIT-Kharagpur 25.49 percent, IIT-Mumbai 24.70 percent, NIT-Kurukshetra 24.26 percent, NIT-Srinagar 17 percent, IISER-Kolkata 14.87 percent and IISER-Pune 23.69 percent reservation to OBC students in 2014-15.
The panel has said it is not “satisfied with the reason advanced by central educational institutes (CEIs) regarding non-availability of suitable candidates for filling of OBC seats.” In fact, the authorities concerned didn’t work toward achieving the goal as they failed in arming OBC students with improved knowledge to enable them to avail quota in the educational institutions.
OBC Vacancies in Universities
- A parliamentary panel has found that the HRD Ministry and the UGC have failed to appoint OBC teachers.
- The Gohain committee’s report comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s recent observation that the quota system should be done away with in ‘national interest’.
- The panel has found that the percentage of reservation for OBC students in central universities is pathetically low.
- The situation is equally distressing in IITs and other science and research institutes.
- Educational institutes have failed to implement the DoPT guidelines or conduct any special recruitment drives to clear the backlog of OBC vacancies.
OBC Candidates Denied Jobs
Besides, while students have been denied opportunity to avail admission in higher technical institutes, OBC candidates who qualified for various teaching posts in these institutions were also denied jobs.
The committee found that as on 31 March 2015, there were 50 backlog OBC vacancies in Vishwa Bharti, 45 in Harisingh Gaur University (Sagar), 44 in Guru Ghasidas University, 34 in Pondicherry University, 33 in Tezpur University and 32 each in Assam University, University of Delhi and University of Allahabad.
“The situation is disturbing in other universities also and still worse in a number of technical institutions,” the committee noted while refusing to accept the explanation offered by the UGC and HRD that the huge backlog in recruitment under OBC category “could be attributed to dearth of suitable OBC candidates.”
But the Gohain panel has pointed out that the CEIs “have not taken adequate steps to fulfill the 27 percent reservation for OBC faculty posts.”
‘DoPT Guidelines Not Implemented’
It is “shocking” that despite the various circulars issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), under the Prime Minister’s Office, for holding special recruitment drives to clear the backlog of OBC vacancies, the CEIs have “neither implemented DoPT guidelines nor conducted special recruitment drives.”
The committee said that the HRD ministry “is equally responsible as it has failed to monitor the implementation of DoPT guidelines by CEIs in letter and spirit.”
(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist)
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