NEW DELHI: The Government on Wednesday decided to set up an informal committee of ministers to help evolve a "mechanism" to sort out the reservation tangle, taking into account the views and interests of various sections.

Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh and P. Chidambaram would find a way satisfying the need for affirmative action through reservation for the socially and educationally backward sections and maintaining an overall balance, highly placed sources in the Government said here.

The Ministers would work out a mechanism as decided by the Government earlier. There was a possibility of consultations with political parties at the end of this exercise.

In a significant development, senior Congress leader and Union Minister Oscar Fernandes reached out to medical students who have been agitating against reservation for Other Backward Classes in institutions of higher learning.

The Backward Classes Parliamentary Forum decided to postpone its meeting scheduled for Wednesday following a request from the Government. It asked the forum to await its decision.

Consensus

In the Lok Sabha, the Government said it would arrive at a collective view after taking into consideration all aspects of reservation in higher education. No one could have any objection if efforts were made to address the cause of tension, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said. There was no question of the Government going back on its intention to implement the Constitution amendment passed by Parliament.

Responding to a calling attention motion, Mr. Singh denied that there were differences in the Government over implementing its commitment to provide reservation to the OBCs in IIMs, IITs and other higher education institutions. The issue generated heat with frequent verbal clashes between members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling coalition benches, leading to repeated warnings by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.

Mr. Singh said there was no delay on the part of the Government in implementing the amendment. The main reason why the Government could not proceed further was the Assembly election in some States and the concomitant model code of conduct enforced by the Election Commission. On the suggestions to increase the number of seats, expand infrastructure and outlay or set up more institutes of higher learning, he said the decision could not be taken in 24 hours. Mr. Singh said he wanted to dispel the notion that the Government condoned violence against demonstrators.

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