New Delhi, Sept 5 (UNI) Alleging a deliberate conspiracy to deny higher and quality education to Dalit, tribal and backward class students, the Congress today demanded the enactment of a law to enforce reservations in private educational institutions as mandated under Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India.
Addressing a joint press conference, Chairmen of SC, ST and OBC departments, Rajinder Pal Gautam, Vikrant Bhuria and Anil Jaihind alleged that there was a conspiracy to deny the higher and quality education to the students belonging to the 90 percent population comprising SCs, STs and OBCs.
The party leaders said that to provide reservation in private educational institutions, Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government had amended the Article 15 of the Constitution, and introduced Article 15(5), enabling reservation for the students from SC, ST and OBC communities in such educational institutions.
They said that after facing some legal challenges, ultimately the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutional validity of Article 15(5). However, they said, the private educational institutions are not legally bound to provide reservation to these students. For that, they added, the central government needs to enact a statute to enforce the implementation of Article 15(5), which provides for reservation in the private educational institutions.
The Congress leaders alleged that the BJP government had been deliberately sitting on the amendment for the last eleven years.
Accusing the government of orchestrating a “well-planned conspiracy” to keep the SC, ST and OBC students away from quality and higher education, they said that while the number of government educational institutions was declining, students belonging to the reserved categories were not being provided a chance to study in the private educational institutions.
They referred to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Digvijaya Singh, which strongly recommended enacting a statute to ensure the implementation of Article 15 (5).
The Congress leaders referred to the findings of the committee, which said that only 0.89 per cent SC, 0.53 per cent ST and 11.16 per cent OBC students were able to study in private educational institutions.
They alleged that the last eleven years have been the darkest period for the SCs, STs and OBCs as the government has gone on a privatisation spree to deny reservation benefits to these sections of the society.
Underlining the need for reservation in private educational institutions, they claimed that currently, there were 517 private universities in the country where no such provision exists. Similarly, they said, 78.5 percent of degree colleges in the country are private and do not offer reservations.
The SC, ST and OBC leaders demanded immediate enactment of a law to implement Article 15 (5), which provides for reservation in private educational institutions.
