NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 27: To offset the impact of 27 per cent OBC reservation in premier higher education institutions, the Veerappa Moily Oversight Committee, in its final report, has suggested a review of quota policy after five or ten years, increase in seats within three years, public-private partnerships for new IIMs, IITs, medical and agricultural colleges and scholarships to OBC students from Standard IX onward.

The committee has refused to tread on the contentious creamy layer issue. “We have left it for the government to decide,” panel chairman Moily said today. The committee has also not ventured into the question of unaided institutions, saying these were “out of the Oversight Committee’s ambit”.

The report was finalized after an eight-hour meeting of the Oversight Committee at the Vigyan Bhawan Annexe in New Delhi. It is expected to be submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by the end of this week.

After the meeting, Moily said: “The committee has sealed the debate on phasing out, and it has decided all institutions must expand within three years.” He said certain institutions like IIM-A and IIM-Indore had asked for more time — four years — to complete the expansion, but the Oversight panel decided to rule out that option.

Admitting that while “very few” institutions will be able to expand in one year, most like the NITs (National Institutes of Technology) will be able to expand in two years. And most IIMs and IITs will take three years to expand.

In order to increase 54 pc seats in all these educational institutions, the panel, he said, has opted for the formula of 18 pc increase each year: “So, it will be 18 pc in first year, next 18 in the second and remaining 18 in the third year.”

According to Moily, the panel has recommended building new institutions as part of the infrastructure-building exercise, like new IIMs, IITs. While he said the committee has recommended to set up three new IIMs, no such number has been specified for IITs.

Sources said the HRD ministry had pitched for 5 IIMs, 3 IITs, 3 IISERs, 4 SPAs (School of Planning and Architecture) and 20 IIITs (Indian Institute of Information Technology). But the committee didn’t agree with the Ministry on this list.

However, a couple of new agricultural and medical institutions have been recommended in the final report, confirmed sources in the Oversight committee.

For building new institutions, the Oversight Committee has recommended exploring the option of “public-private partnership”, which has long been opposed by the HRD Ministry but is advocated by the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission. Moily said, “For building these institutions, we have recommended going for public-private partnerships. The private sector can be allowed for funding these institutions.”

The committee has revised the entire expenditure — both on recurring and non-recurring — at Rs 17,200 crore, up from Rs 16,600 crore stated in the interim report.

“The money will be footed by the government and there will be no delay in that,” Moily said.

The committee has also asked for review of the OBC quota policy after five or 10 years of implementation. The committee, he said, has however made a “strong paragraph”, meaning recommendation, to provide scholarships to OBC children from Standard IX onward.

On the contentious creamy layer issue, the committee has refused to tread. “We have left it for the government to decide,” Moily said. The committee has also not ventured into the question of unaided institutions, saying that they were “out of the Oversight committee’s ambit”.