From rxpgnews.com
Decision on IIM admissions deferred to Thursday
By IANS,
Apr 25, 2007 - 11:08:25 PM
New Delhi, April 25 - A decision on releasing the admission list for the general category aspirants of the Indian Institutes of Management - was deferred till Thursday as the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs - could not reach any conclusion Wednesday night.
After about one and half hours of deliberations, the CCPA members emerged from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's official residence and said they would go for wider consultations with the Left parties at a meeting scheduled Thursday.
The Left parties support the central government on the floor of parliament but do not hold any portfolio.
'Today, a number of important leaders of UPA - such as Ram Vilas Paswan and Anbumani Ramadoss were not present at the meet, it was not proper to take a decision in their absence,' said Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal - chief Lalu Prasad.
'That's why we have deferred it till tomorrow,' he added.
The admission process at the six prestigious business schools has been held up due to the March 29 Supreme Court stay on a law reserving 27 percent seats for Other Backward Classes - in all centrally funded institutions of higher learning. The apex court will hear the government's plea May 8.
However, official sources said there were still differences among the alliance partners over this vexed issue.
Many of the leaders, particularly from the Congress, were keen to release the general category admission list for the IIMs like previous years.
'This is in order to create a conducive atmosphere for the hearing of the quota case in the Supreme Court on May 8,' sources said.
On the other hand, other sections, particularly from the Dravidian parties like DMK and PMK, and the RJD were of the view that government should wait at least till May 8.
Earlier in the day, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and briefed him on the issue of the IIM admissions.
He later indicated that the six IIMs might be allowed to release the admission list for the general category aspirants first. However, he added: 'The prime minister was of the view that since the decision to put the admission on hold was taken collectively, the decision to allow admission should also be a collective one.'
The CCPA meet was called for such a collective decision.
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