At a time when the OBC quota law has been stayed by the Supreme Court and its fate hangs in balance, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh will be training his guns on the states to put a “Centre-like OBC quota law” in the state-run higher educational institutions.

A meeting called by the HRD minister of all state education ministers and education secretaries, scheduled to be held in Delhi on April 10 and 11, will put pressure on the states to pass a suitable law by respective state legislatures.

Also on the table will be the issue of increased funding by states in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) — UPA’s flagship education-for-all programme — from this fiscal year.

Top government sources told The Indian Express that the OBC reservation issue will be taken up by the ministry as a “high priority area” and every state education minister will be asked to explain why the state government has not passed a suitable legislation, to this effect, even after a year of amending the Constitution.

The UPA government after having passed the 93rd amendment with a near-unanimous approval in Parliament in December 2005 had sent letters to all chief ministers in March last year asking them to pass “suitable enabling legislation” to put OBC quotas in state universities and other higher educational institutions run by the respective state governments.

While most southern states, including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, already have OBC quota laws in place — some even exceeding the 50 per cent mark — many, including Left-ruled West Bengal have not put any such law.

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