The Hindu : National : "Centre should stop vacillating on quota issue"

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

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National

"Centre should stop vacillating on quota issue"

Staff Reporter

Medicos' forum expresses concern over recent developments at AIIMS

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over the recent developments at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) here, the Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunities (MFEO) has urged the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre to ensure immediate implementation of reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in institutes of higher education and also fulfil its promise of increasing the number of seats in these institutes.

In a press statement on Sunday, the MFEO said the UPA Government should stop vacillating on the reservation issue which had fuelled "upper caste chauvinism." Stating that the recent incidents at the AIIMS have brought to the fore the dangerous caste divide, the MFEO alleged the situation was being `aggravated' by a section of the anti-reservation faculty, Residents' Doctor Association and Students' Union.

Before the start of the anti-reservation agitation, the AIIMS faculty and RDA were complaining against the "highhandedness" of the Director, and now this very section was siding with him.

"The AIIMS administration led by Dr. Venugopal had actively abetted the anti-reservation agitation, which resulted in AIIMS becoming the centre of the agitation," the release said, adding that both the Government and Dr. Venugopal were claiming to be working for preserving the interests of the AIIMS, without realising that the first and foremost interest of the institution should be in serving poor patients.

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