With the Supreme Court’s stay on the 27 per cent OBC quota law likely to come up for a review on Tuesday, the Government, trying to get the stay vacated, has quietly put into motion plans to upgrade infrastructure of higher educational institutions.

Verbal instructions have gone out to start preparing for the upgradation though there’s no official communication in writing since there’s a court stay on the matter.

Top government sources told The Indian Express that all institutions, covered under the ambit of the 27 per cent OBC quota legislation and expected to upgrade their infrastructure by 54 per cent, have been asked to “do the groundwork” — short of awarding contracts and making financial commitments.

“This has been conveyed to save time so that work can begin, as soon as the stay order is vacated,” the sources said.

This has been communicated to heads of IITs, IIMs and Central universities under the jurisdiction of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. A similar communication has been conveyed to top health and agriculture education institutions by parent ministries, sources said.

The “groundwork” for implementation of upgradation would essentially mean making detailed project reports, identifying locations for new buildings to be used as hostels, laboratories, libraries and so on, finalising designs for such buildings keeping in view their capacity and other such modalities.

Meanwhile, a section in the government has also suggested that Cabinet approval be taken for going ahead with the infrastructure upgradation. “There is also a move to delink the upgradation exercise from the reservation issue, and get a nod from the Cabinet to upgrade infrastructure in all these higher educational institutions,” sources said.

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