New Delhi, Aug 25: Government today tabled in the Lok Sabha the Bill providing for 27 per cent reservation of seats for backward caste students, including those belonging to the 'creamy layer', in elite Central and aided institutions like the IITs and IIMs.

The new reservation scheme that will be implemented from the next academic year and staggered over three years will be possible under The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Bill, 2006, that was introduced by HRD Minister Arjun Singh on the last day of the Monsoon session.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee immediately announced that the Bill will be referred to the departmentally-related Standing Committee.

Seventeen institutions of scientific and technological importance like the Homi Bhabha National Institute and its constituent units have been kept away from the new reservation scheme.

There is no mention of the "creamy layer" concept in the Bill, the inclusion of which was demanded by the CPI(M) and strongly opposed by the proponents of the measure--DMK, PMK, RJD and LJP.

The Bill also provides for the first time statutory recognition to reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent respectively, a benefit they have been enjoying in most of these institutions already under an executive order.

In the face of protests by students belonging to general category students, angry over their reducing share in the pie, the legislation seeks to provide for mandatory increase in the number of seats in the Central Educational Institutions for open category students.

The mandatory increase in the number of seats will be done in such a manner that after a proportionate raise in the number of reserved seats, the total number of seats available now for the open category students will not be reduced later.

All the eight institutions coming under the Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, will not be covered by the new reservation scheme.

They are are Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata, Institute of Physics, Bhubaneshwar, Insitute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, HarishChandra Research Institute, Allahabad and Tata Memorial Centre Mumbai.

The other institutions are: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, North-Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Science, Shillong, National Brain Research Centre, Manesar (Gurgaon), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, Physical Research Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram, and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun.

The Bill also covers Institutions deemed to be Universities established, maintained or aided by the central Government but excludes minority institutions from its purview.

Asked about the exclusion, Singh said this was negated by the House earlier.

He said the Bill was brought in order to benefit millions of students belonging socially and educationally weaker sections of society.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says that access to education is of utmost importance in insuring advancement of persons belonging to the SCs, STs and backward classes.

The Constitution 93rd amendment contained special provisions for promoting the educational advancement of these sections through special provisions in all educational institutions including private educational institutions whether aided or unaided by the State.

Today's bill seeks to implement the Constitutional provisions, the Minister said.

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