Thursday, May 18 2006 14:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Faced with the volatile OBC reservation issue, Government today (May 18, 2006) set in motion the exercise to evolve a comprehensive package with an informal group of senior ministers having its first meeting to come up with a formula that could largely satisfy the other sections.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and HRD Minister Arjun Singh were present at the meeting also attended by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Health Minister Anbumani Ramdoss. Pawar and Ramdoss are not part of the group.

The group was constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday to hold talks with political parties and academicians for evolving a comprehensive package in the wake of the anti-reservation stir crippling the healthcare services in parts of the country.

Sources said the first meeting deliberated on ways and means to cushion the effect of implementing the quota by increasing the intake and raising the number of institutions.

The Government has already told the Parliament that there was no dilution of its commitment to provide OBC quota in elite educational institutions.

Government has constituted the Committee, which is an informal group and is neither a GoM nor a Cabinet Committee, in view of the realisation that the task ahead was a difficult one and a consensus on a package needed to be evolved ahead of the new academic year.