Regional balance as well as academic excellence in making new IITs and IIESTs

Moily sets 3-year deadline for IITs, IIMs

NEW DELHI: The Veerappa Moily panel has recommended a review of all reservation schemes in educational institutions every five years. It has, however, steered clear of the politically volatile issue of excluding the 'creamy layer' among OBCs from the ambit of job quota because of a serious in-house split.

The panel, which was set up to chart out the roadmap for implementation of the newly introduced OBC quota in Central educational institutions, has in its final report released on Wednesday, recommended the setting up of three more IIMs along with more IIT-type institutions.

Called Oversight Committee, the panel has, just like the Bill on reservations in aided institutions, recommended a three-year timeframe for rolling out the OBC quota in Central institutions, overruling IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Indore, which had asked for four years to implement the reservation scheme.

It has called for a Rs 17,200-crore package to fund the infrastructure upgrade so that there is no decline in general-category seats.

"In order to retain the general seats intact after giving 27% reservation to OBCs, 54% seat expansion would be needed which can be done at the rate of 18% every year for three years," Moily told reporters.

The panel has also recommended a hike in scholarships for students.

The proposal to set up three new IIMs should come as a relief to the droves eager to have seats in the business schools bearing the prestigious tag. As for IIT-type institutions, HRD ministry has already decided to give this status to nearly 10 National Institutes of Technology.

Explaining the roadmap, Moily said: "Implementation will begin in 2007-08 and no institution will slip out over and above three years. During our consultations with heads of various institutions, we found that staggered implementation is the best way.