Babus and Bureaucracy make Citizens CRAZY

The a to Z of indian bureaucracy
Twenty six ways in which Indian babus are making a mockery of governance, ethics and public service.
Arrogance
For months, the media in Delhi screamed hoarse that the planned ‘BRT corridor’ scheme dreamt up by a few babus of the transport department is a disaster. The bureaucrats blithely went about imposing this nightmare on citizens of Delhi with traffic jams becoming the norm. Now the babus arrogantly blame citizens of Delhi for choosing cars over murderous buses for commuting to office! A babu without arrogance would be like a dodo... Extinct

Bullying
Like all bullies, the babu rides roughshod over those below him and fawns obsequiously on his masters. You only have to watch the rude and callous manner in which a bureaucrat behaves with a citizen who has gone to his office for some work. And then compare his behaviour in front of a politician in power. The ‘public servant’ is actually the ‘master’ of the public and the ‘servant of the ‘master’ – usually a minister, and sometimes a mafia don!

Corruption
This is synonymous with Indian babudom. Whether you are the aam aadmi or a billionaire, your file won’t move an inch unless cash changes hands under the table. In the 1980s, the Octroi department in then Bombay went on a strike & army officials manned the check posts. The strike was withdrawn after the media reported that Octroi collections had gone up by more than 500%.

Delay & denial
Perhaps except the Konkan Railway and the Delhi Metro, no project ever undertaken by an Indian babu ever finishes on time. There are some irrigation projects that are in the process of completion for the last 30 years! Delays are always deliberate because they throw open more opportunities for ‘money on the side’. And of course, whenever the media or the judiciary highlights the delay, the Pavlovian reflex of the Indian bureaucrat is to deny, and then deny some more.

Enquiry & extension
If corruption and sordid acts are the dirt, the omnipresent ‘Enquiry Committee’ is the proverbial carpet under which the dirt has been carefully hidden. The principal purpose of the Enquiry committee is to delay, and then deny in the hope that the media and the public will eventually forget about the case. In English, enquiry rhymes with another interesting word called bury! Bureaucrats never ever retire; they just keep getting those ‘extensions’!

Failure
That one word can neatly sum up the history of the Indian bureaucracy after independence in 1947. Worse, babus find it difficult to digest the fact that entrepreneurs can usually do a better job. So you will see bureaucrats banning ‘private’ bus operators and forcing citizens to take state run buses that don’t run. So you will see envious bureaucrats ‘de-recognising’ or not recognising world class centres of higher education. Perhaps their biggest failure till date has been their total inability to kill the great Indian spirit!

Gutless
There is a saying about the Emergency: they crawled when they were asked to bend. That can neatly sum up the behaviour and attitude of most bureaucrats in independent India. It is virtually impossible for a minister to get a babu sacked; and yet bureaucrats crawl before netas and justify their behaviour by whining that they are otherwise harassed.

Hustling
You would associate this term usually with dealers in a casino. But Indian babus have become masters of the game. Just look at how Sudhir Goswami hustled his way into the cover of Time Magazine as one of the Indian heroes. It is only much later that dumb struck Indians found out that Goswami was lining his pockets and bank accounts with money meant for flood relief! And does any one remember Ashok Agarwal, the Enforcement Directorate official who turned black mailing into a fine art!

Impose inefficiently
When corruption, delays, denials and hustling don’t work, the Indian babu resorts to ‘imposing’ rules and regulations. It is a different matter that the bureaucrat performs even this destructive act very inefficiently! Impose price controls if inflation hurts people so that they are hurt even more. Impose quotas at the behest of political masters. Impose rules which entrepreneurs have to break if they want to run a successful business.

Justify
The Indian bureaucrat has acquired and mastered the legendary act of justifying anything and everything. File a request under the Right to Information Act and the babu will deny access to it. He will then justify his cussed behaviour because it involves something termed as ‘national security’. Ask a bureaucrat about delays in construction of national highways and you will get simply no response, He will justify his stonewalling in the name of ‘public interest’!

Kafkaesque
If Franz Kafka had encountered Indian babus, his novels would have been even more depressing and disturbing. Analysts are sadly mistaken when they call Kafka’s writings surreal; they perhaps meant the Indian bureaucracy. A Kafkaesque bureaucracy is “marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity”. B&E challenges entrepreneurs and citizens to say confidently that they understand the frighteningly complex jargon that is used by babus.

Lies
Arguably the third most favourite sport of the bureaucrats after corruption and delays. When denials and stone walling don’t work, just resort to outright lies. The Indian babu will lie about files, projects, public interest, national security, corruption, delays, hustling and any other act that might embarrass the bureaucrat individually or the bureaucracy collectively. Thanks to judicial activism and some bureaucrats being sent behind bars for contempt of court, babus are now wary of using this weapon!

Mismanagement
If Jack Welch would watch an Indian babu ‘manage’ something, he might just end up committing suicide. With extremely rare and honourable exceptions, almost every thing that a bureaucrat touches turns into dust. When babus announce a grand new plan to increase electricity and water supply to citizens, the taps dry up and the lights go out. When they announce a plan to tackle monsoon in Bombay, even Dalal Street virtually shuts down because no one can reach office! And of course, they then justify it in public interest!

Nepotism
Like the courtiers of the Mughal era, Indian babus-thanks to their access to the new kings and queens of India (Ministers, MPs and MLAs)-are perpetually trying to curry a favour or two for themselves and their family members. The best overseas scholarships are thus ‘reserved’ for children of bureaucrats. Some of the best jobs in the private sector are thus ‘reserved’ for the children of bureaucrats. And some of the best college seats in India are thus ‘reserved’ for the blessed progeny of these new age courtiers!

Oblivious
Quite mysteriously, the ‘If they don’t have bread, let them eat cake’ persona of the French Revolution has been transplanted into Indian bureaucracy. Cocooned in their bungalows and VIP areas, the Indian babu is utterly oblivious to what is happening in the rest of the country. The babu is oblivious of the fact that 300 million Indians are starving; that roads don’t exist in much of India, that water and electricity are mirages for the aam aadmi, that…The only thing they are not oblivious to is their ‘status’.

Proliferate
Like bacteria and termites, Indian babus have proliferated and invaded virtually every sphere of activity in the country. No wonder businessmen and citizens say that our system is rotten to the core. Indian babus run companies, they manage climate control, they run the Railways, they operate fleets of buses and aircraft, they run duty free shops, they run anti-poverty programs, they run schools and colleges and hospitals… They might start running modelling agencies and spas too. In short, proliferating bureaucrats have run India to the ground!

Queue
When the first bureaucrat in the history of mankind had a fantasy, he saw a long and winding queue of forlorn, dejected and frustrated people. That day, God was perhaps in a bad mood and condemned mankind to a life time of queuing up. For Indian babus, the ultimate high is making citizens stand in never ending queues-for money, for ration, for tickets, for liquor, for passports and even for death certificates. Of course, queues are meant only for the public, not for ‘public servants’!

Red tape
The ubiquitous file tied up in red thread is the ultimate symbol of the corrosive and destructive powers of Indian bureaucracy. It is as dangerous as the Swastika of Nazis; as devastating as the Red Star of Stalin and Mao and as vainglorious as the Eagle of the United States. The Indian babu starts getting withdrawal symptoms if he is not surrounded by musty files; many of which have perhaps not been opened for decades. Red Tape is the Bramhastra that is used by babus to systematically throttle India Inc.

Sycophancy
Many at B&E suggested socialism & sadistic as a better option than sycophancy. Eventually, the consensus was that arrogance coupled with sycophancy is the Yin & Yang of Indian bureaucracy. The sycophancy is reserved only for the powers that be-for the criminal turned neta who has become a minister, for superiors who can gift plum postings and assignments and for very rich entrepreneurs who lavish money on the bureaucrats.

Tragedy
Indian bureaucrats are always feverishly praying for natural and man made tragedies and disasters to strike India. A minor flood is welcome; a drought is even better and a disaster like an earthquake or a super cyclone is heaven sent. A tragedy means ‘relief’ money from government coffers and an opportunity to make enough to build another house or two. Now you know why sincere and dedicated babus fight to have their districts declared ‘drought prone’!

Utopian
Hare brained ideas and schemes have become the monopoly of Indian bureaucracy. One day, you will have the Lt. Governor of Delhi thinking aloud that I-cards for people from U.P. and Bihar might be a good idea. The other day, you will have another babu stipulate that a homeless destitute must provide proof of residence before he gets free food. Soon, expect a bunch of sycophantic babus kowtowing to a neta and drawing up legislation for reservations in the private sector.

Verbose
This term just about pipped the word vindictive to the post. Whether it is the annual function of a school or college or a gathering of India’s top businessmen, the Indian bureaucrat is in his element when he gets a chance to deliver a ‘lecture’. Hypocritical words tumble out of his mouth like honey laced with arsenic. Children & businessmen have no choice but to suffer in silence for a vindictive bureaucrat is worse than a verbose one!

Wanton
Four synonyms for the term wanton are-uncalled for, needless, meaningless and reckless. But wait, the wanton behaviour of the Indian babu is on display on selective occasions. Over cautious bureaucrats suddenly turn decisively over zealous when it comes to squandering tax payers’ money on fancy schemes that only line up their pockets and that of politicians.

Xenophobia
When all else – including corruption, delays, denials, hustling, nepotism, red tapism and sycophancy – fails, the Indian babu resorts to the good old pass the buck game and starts blaming ‘foreign powers’ for all the ills that bedevil India. The foreign power could be the CIA, it could be terrorists from Pakistan, it could be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, it could be the insidious designs of China and it could be a conspiracy of developed countries to deny prosperity to India.

Yes minister
Most readers of B&E must be familiar with this hilarious and yet poignant book and British TV series. Just in case you are not, it is a series of episodes where bumbling but clubby bureaucrats make fools out of vain glorious politicians in the U.K. In India, it is difficult to say who is making a fool of whom. But one thing is for sure, both bureaucrats and ministers are sure making fools of Indian citizens. Not just some of the people some of the time. But all the people, all the time!

Zero sum game
In this game, one of the two participants has to necessarily lose. More importantly, the quantum of gains that are made by the winner is exactly the same as the quantum of losses. In India, the bureaucrat and the citizen have been playing a zero sum game right since 1947; perhaps even before that, when the British had ruled India through a civil service stucture. No prizes for guessing who the decisive winner is when the opponents are the citizen and the bureaucrat. Unlike those classic zero sum games, the politician is the joker in the pack in this case!
Business and Economy- Indian Bureaucracy

Selfish MPs: Why greed is endless

By T.J.S.George, 21/08/2010
TJS Column:
There are no outstanding parliamentarians in India, but there is an Outstanding Parliamentarian Award, duly conferred by the President upon a handpicked MP. At last week's award ceremony, Vice President Hamid Ansari spoke a few honest words. Lung power had replaced oratorical skills, he said, and discussions were drowned in noise and disruption. "It detracts from the dignity of Parliament and invites public scorn".

This body of men and women whom the public of India scorns has now given unto themselves a three-fold increase in salary and allowances. They brayed for more: a five-fold increase. To describe them in English as a shameless lot will not bring out their despicableness in full. The Hindi term is slightly better: 'Besharam log'.

It is so typical of the political class that Lalu Prasad Yadav should have been the most animated speaker demanding the pay hike. This is a man who not only got embroiled in serial misappropriation cases during his chief ministership in Bihar; he allowed kidnapping, especially of well-to-do doctors, to become the most paying industry in his state. He escaped from punishment only by bargaining with an amoral Congress. Last March, for example, he declared that he would not withdraw support from the Manmohan Singh Government over the Women's Bill. As if on cue, the CBI took measures to neutralise a pending corruption case against him.
Read more...

CWG: If the games were held in Dantewada the Maoists would have lost their raison d'etre

Senior Congress leader and former sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has slammed the current United Progressive Alliance government under Dr Manmohan Singh for the huge amount of 'wasteful expenditure' being incurred on the Commonwealth games, saying that if a part of this money had been spent on the Bhopal Gas victims it would have brought the affected 'some relief'.

"Holding the 10-day, Rs 20,000-crore jamboree reflects a misplaced sense of pride and distortion of national priorities. If not on development of a chronically poor nation, the money could have been well spent on bringing basic sports to every mohalla and panchayat,” former Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Sports Mani Shankar Aiyar says in an article.

The outspoken Aiyar, who was recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, has in a signed article taken on the government over the Commonwealth Games and questioned the UPA's policies on this issue.

Aiyar said the original promise was to hold the games within Rs 150 crore and this money was to be recovered from endorsements and ticket sales. Expressing shock, he said the expenditure has already touched Rs 20,000 crore and his fears were that the expenditure would eventually exceed Rs 60, 000 crore. Aiyar said that the Bhopal gas victims could have benefited if some part of this money could have been diverted for their welfare and rehabilitation.

Aiyar, who was also the panchayati raj minister said that when Rs 600 crores was given for the Gram Nyayalas (rural courts) after a lot of haggling, both the planning commission and the finance ministry reminding him that India was a 'poor country.' He said that the same planning commission and finance ministry were not giving out money for the games and no questions were being asked in the process. Aiyar said that originally it was decided to hold the games in Bawana in north-east Delhi dominated by villages to ensure the growth and development of that region. So how were the games shifted to the posh areas of Delhi, which is already developed.

Giving the example of East Manchester where the Commonwealth Games were held in London, he said the most backward area was chosen to benefit the poor and the unemployed. As a consequence of this, Walmart set up its biggest store employing 18000 boys and girls while Microsoft's European headquarters was located there because of the Commonwealth Games.

Aiyar said that if the games had been held in Dantewada and if 20,000 crores had been invested there, the Maoists would have lost their raison d'etre.

Hitting out at both the Delhi state and central governments, Aiyar said that the effort appeared to be to impress foreigners at the cost of the poor and the needy, with beggars having been removed from Delhi's streets because they left a bad impression on foreigners, but this, he says will not drive away poverty.

Aiyar has been a constant and consistent critic of the kind of wasteful expenditure that the Indian government is spending on a one time gaming extravaganza which will neither promote sports in the country, nor create any sporting infrastructure nor benefit the country in any form, except to spend money like water, for a cause which has no meaning.

In India, as Aiyar foresees, the only good that will come out of the Commonwealth Games will be a decision to never again bid for such an event until every Indian child gets a minimum to eat and is assured a basic education and a playground with trained coaches to discover the sportsperson in himself/ herself.
Panchayati Raj Minister Slams UPA Government
Who gains from the Games?

Preparing for a Demographic Dividend

At the World Economic Forum’s fall meeting in New Delhi, five experts discussed the challenges and opportunities India faces as its population becomes increasingly youthful. These include improving the education system, providing better housing, luring capital to support innovation, and implementing policies that will engender confidence in the economy.

The five experts are Sudhakar Balakrishnan, CEO of Adecco India, a staffing and human resources services firm based in Bangalore; Thomas Crampton, Asia/Pacific social media strategy director for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, part of WPP PLC; Shobana Kamineni, executive director of new initiatives for the Apollo Hospitals Group, which operates 46 hospitals in India and overseas; Naresh Malhan, managing director of Indian operations for the employment services firm Manpower Services India Private Ltd; and C.K. Prahalad, considered by many to be the world’s number one mangement guru, who unfortunately passed away on April 16, 2010.

The discussion, moderated by Booz & Company Chief Marketing and Knowledge Officer Thomas A. Stewart, took place on November 9, 2009, at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit in New Delhi. Booz and Company is an international management consulting firm.

The Summer 2010 issue of STRATEGY+BUSINESS, the management magazine published by Booz & Company, carries a full account of the illuminating discussion. It’s reproduced below.
Ram Narayanan
US-India Friendship

with Sudhakar Balakrishnan, Thomas Crampton, Shobana Kamineni, Naresh Malhan, and C.K. Prahalad; moderated by Thomas A. Stewart (click here)

Demographics are destiny. Countries with a large and expanding workforce and relatively few people of dependent age (under 15 or over 64) can reap what Harvard School of Public Health demographer David Bloom has called a “demographic dividend.” Young, unencumbered workers spur entrepreneurship and innovation, enabling significant gains in productivity, savings, and capital inflows. As fresh ideas flourish, governments can focus on improving infrastructure and helping to fund such critical technologies as intelligent transportation systems, smart utility grids, and renewable energy. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the demographic dividend can increase a country’s GDP growth by as much as a third.

No country is better poised to take advantage of the demographic dividend than India. In 2020, the average age in India will be only 29 years, compared with 37 in China and the United States, 45 in western Europe, and 48 in Japan. Moreover, 70 percent of Indians will be of working age in 2025, up from 61 percent now. Also by 2025, the proportion of children younger than 15 will fall to 23 percent of India’s total population, from 34 percent today, while the share of people older than 65 will remain around just 5 percent. China’s demographics are not as rosy as India’s, because the government’s policies to limit population growth will have created an abnormally large cohort of people over age 60 by 2040. Other emerging nations, such as Pakistan, Indonesia, and certain countries in Latin America and Africa, will produce much larger workforces in the coming years. But their demographic dividends may be inhibited by political and social instability that impedes efforts to put this young population to productive use; a country with massive numbers of unemployed young people and no constructive economic outlet for their dynamism is headed for trouble.
Preparing for a Demographic Dividend

Nation Building – Army Sponsors Thousand Children of Kargil Region

PIB Tuesday, June 22, 2010 17:6 IST
Sustained efforts by the Army five years ago motivated Mohammad Ali, a resident of Kaksar, a remote village in Kargil district, to send Nasreen banoo, his daughter, then a young girl of five years, to Pune to pursue her education. Nasreen was admitted in Sarhad English Medium School at Pune, as part of Army’s operation Sadbhavna. Nasreen left the village despite opposition by villagers including elderly clerics. She was one of the first girls from Kargil district to have moved out with the help of Army for quality education, five years back. Seeing her, 33 more children were motivated to study in schools outside the state, in Solan, Cannanore, Pune and Beas. There are presently 15 children in her school in Pune.

Today Nasreen is a class six student, who visits her village once a year, during the annual 15 days vacation. She wants to become an Army pilot and is the only girl in the village, who can read, write and speak English and Hindi fluently. Nasreen is well informed and forms her own opinions. She knows that being educated means abiding by certain standards of social behavior. In addition, Nasreen plays games and has learnt that sportsmanship is a quality that must be cherished in day to day life. Her teachers say that she is well mannered, sensitive, smart and not afraid to speak the truth. In her village, she is an idol for girls of her age.

Nasreens father, Mohammed Ali is a poor farmer who also works as a part time labourer. Kaksar is a remote village with a complete Muslim population. It is located close to LOC and has had its share of misery due to Pakistani firing as also Indo – Pak wars. The village is still to be linked to Kargil by a proper road.

The Indian Army not only educates her but also manages her travel arrangements, day to day requirements with respect to uniforms and books. Whenever the children travel between the school and their home in Kaksar, for the sake of security, one of the parents is sent along and all their expenses are paid by the Army. Besides these 33 children, Army is also sponsoring 1036 children of Kargil area, for studies in seven Army Goodwill schools, within the region.
S Om Singh/Rajendra
Nation Building – Army Sponsors Thousand Children of Kargil Region

The Indian Rope Trick: £70 million earmarked for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project vanished

The Hindu: Tuesday, Jun 15, 2010
U.K. probe into charges of misuse of aid by India by Hasan Suroor
£14 million spent on items that had nothing to do with education.
LONDON: In an embarrassing development for New Delhi, the British government has ordered an inquiry into allegations of misuse of millions of pounds given to India in aid to educate poor children.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell described the allegations as “shocking” and said he had launched an “immediate inquiry”.

He also said that all “country programmes” were being reviewed to make sure that money was reaching the people it was intended for.

“These are shocking allegations and I have launched an immediate inquiry to ensure British aid money has not been misused,” he was reported as saying. .

He said had ordered a review of “every single one of the Department for International Development's country programmes to ensure we are giving aid to where it's most needed — to help the world's poorest people”.

Mr. Mitchell's strong reaction followed a report in the News of the World that £70 million of British aid earmarked for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project — a scheme to educate poor children — had “vanished”.

“Millions of pounds of taxpayers' money sent to India to educate poor children is falling into the pockets of crooked officials in the country,” the newspaper said claiming that according to a report by the Auditor-General almost £14 million had been spent on items that had nothing to do with education.

Aid money, it alleged, was used to buy air-conditioners, luxury beds and colour television sets even though many of the schools which were supposed to benefit from these items were in areas where there was no electricity.

It said, according to a report by the Human Resources Development Ministry, “cash has been snaffled by officials running the massive scheme”.

India is the single largest recipient of U.K. overseas aid and received an estimated £1 billion between 2003 and 2008.
U.K. probe into charges of misuse of aid by India

Comments: The reasons are obvious. Most of the Aid agencies including WB operations are headed by a bunch of "educated" bureaucrats/ politicians children/ relatives/ friends and not by professionals! The money therefore vanishes into thin air creating a false illusion... this news is nothing new for the Indian Public!

Col Caveeshar Shaping Young Minds

Dear Friends,
Here is another write up on our course mate KS Caveeshar's activities for the under privileged.
Well done dear Caveeshar and Gifty.
Lt Gen Harbhajan Singh (Retd)

click on image for reading the text
Caveeshar educates underprivileged students
Education is very important in the present day life. Only a literate person can now adjust with the development of society. Especially girls or women must be educated as they play a vital role in the development of society.
With this vision KS Caveeshar, a retired Colonel and a resident of Noida Sector 37 has taken a unique step to educate underprivileged students that reside in his neighbourhood. He is not only giving them education, but also looking for their overall development. He is doing all this on his own without taking support from the government or any NGO.
Caveeshar said, "I retired from the army in 1984 and then served with RAW for a couple of years and then migrated to the USA. Stayed there for almost two decades and served in the education department of Los Angeles Unified School District (teaching Americans good English). Returned and settled in Sector 37, Noida, towards the end of 2005.
Have about 30 students
"I saw that there were a lot of students who go to school, but they were not getting proper education as nobody in their family was uneducated. Hence, I started helping those underprivileged schoolchildren with their studies at my apartment. When the number became too big for my apartment, I rented a garage, furnished it and moved the children there. When the landlady asked for more money, I got a sort of a classroom constructed at my apartment and moved the children there. I have about 30 students from class I to class X and I help them in two shifts between 3pm and 8pm."
Gives financial help for books
Caveeshar said, "Besides this, I have also helped these children in many other ways. I contacted the president of ICARE Eye Hospital and got a team to come to my place and check the eyes of all children. After that I contacted the high-ups of the amusement park at The Great India Place who, later, invited all children to a Drama 'Jallianwala Bagh' being staged there by a prominent group. Apart from educating them, I have also given financial help for books and school fees to the needy children."
Caveeshar opened his own school
After seeing Caveeshar's hardwork, Retired Colonel Dr Usha Bora and Retired Brigadier Tejender Singh have also started helping him. With their support now, Caveeshar has opened his own school on the name of his father, where some handicapped students are also getting education.
Nobody came for help initially
Caveeshar said, "I had gone through difficult time during the early stage of my mission. Nobody came for help initially, while it was strongly required. I have also lost some of my very good friends, when I asked them for a favour. Despite of all critics, I followed my vision with honesty and ultimately I achieved success."
—Rohit Babbar
Caveeshar educates underprivileged students

Education bill a huge step forward: Sibal

With the Right To Education Act coming into force from Thursday, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said that the education bill is a huge step forward.

In order to fulfill the needs for more teachers Sibal said: "Seven lakh more teachers will be employed."

Sibal hailed the realization of the bill as "tryst with destiny" in the education sector.

"Tomorrow will be a historic day as the RTE Act would come into effect. Education is going to be a Constitutional right...It is a tryst with destiny in the area of education," Sibal told reporters today.

'Tryst with destiny' is the famous phrase associate with Jawaharlal Nehru who used it in his historic speech at midnight of August 14, 1947 when India attained independence.

Sibal said providing quality education is the dream of Congress leadership, its president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The new law will ensure that quality education is provided to children of all community, including minorities and backward classes.

"Any child can demand his right for education from tomorrow. He will not be denied this right," Sibal said.

He said implementation of the Act is not the responsibility of Centre alone but all stakeholders, including parents, children, NGOs, state governments and local governments.

"All the stakeholders need to carry out their responsibilities," he said.

The prime minister will address the nation on the new law tomorrow.

The Act provides for 25 per cent reservation of seats for weaker sections in private and unaided schools. However, this reservation will not be implemented from this year as the admission season is almost over.

"The reservation will be implemented from 2011-12. It will not be implemented in the classes in one go. It will be implemented over a period of 12 years," he said.

As per an estimate, the government will have to spend Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the next five years for its implementation. Sibal said that the government has arranged the required funds for implementing the law.
Education bill a huge step forward: Sibal
Prime Minister's Address to the Nation on The Fundamental Right of Children to Elementary Education