NEW DELHI: The Left parties on Wednesday urged the Centre to bring in legislation during the winter session of Parliament to ensure reservation in unaided professional colleges, in the wake of the August 12 Supreme Court order.

Delegation meets Manmohan

A delegation, headed by Communist Party of India general secretary A.B. Bardhan, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here, and made suggestions on some form of social control over such institutions, an admission policy providing for reservation, and course content, Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said.

Dr. Singh told the delegation that the Centre had convened a meeting of State Education Ministers here for August 27 and it was likely to have broader consultations later.

Besides Mr. Bardhan and Mr. Yechury, the delegation included CPI national secretary D. Raja, Revolutionary Socialist Party MP Abani Roy and All-India Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas.

Mr. Raja said the court order was "retrograde" and against the interests of the Scheduled Castes/Tribes and Other Backward Classes. He said the government should ensure that the necessary mechanism was put in place ahead of the next academic year.

Issue in Parliament

On Tuesday, members in the Rajya Sabha sought legislation to overcome the court order and on Wednesday members in the Lok Sabha raised it through a calling attention motion.

Addressing a press conference, CPI (M) Rajya Sabha leader Nilotpal Basu said the Left leaders pointed out to Dr. Singh that the court ruling amounted to "ultimate commercialisation of education," and called for an appropriate response.

Mr. Basu said he and some other Left MPs met United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and asked her to impress upon the Government the need to bring in Central legislation to give forestland rights to tribals at the earliest.

A draft Bill prepared by the Tribal Affairs Ministry has been put up on its official web site.

The MPs suggested that the Bill be introduced in the current session so that it could be sent to the Standing Committee for "fine-tuning."

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