New Delhi, April 11: State governments today backed the Centre’s decision to move court to get the interim stay on education quotas for other backward classes lifted.

“All state education ministers want the quota regime to come into effect from this year,” human resource development minister Arjun Singh told a news conference after a two-day meeting of state education ministers in Delhi.

“The legal officers are working. They will file an application tomorrow or day after,” Singh said. “We are fully conscious that whatever has to be done has to be done quickly.”

Last week, constituents of the ruling UPA and Left parties had given the Centre a formal go-ahead to get the stay on 27 per cent reservation for OBCs vacated. Singh now has the backing of MPs across the political spectrum as well as state governments.

“The education ministers said that the government should get the stay order vacated without getting into a confrontation with the judiciary,” Singh said.

The HRD minister said he did not know what the “content” of the application would be. The government is likely to underline the plight of students both in the general and reserved categories, whose admissions have been kept on hold.

Singh, however, made it clear that the government was inflexible on two points that could make a crucial difference to the case.

First, he ruled out a fresh caste-based census. “Why should quotas in education be any different from that in employment?” he asked.

Second, Singh said the creamy layer could not be excluded from the quota purview. “The cabinet as well as the political parties had taken a decision on the creamy layer. How is it possible to change that?” he asked.

The creamy layer issue had come up for discussion at last week’s UPA-Left coordination committee meeting. Barring the CPM, all other parties had rejected the proposal.

The government could have a way out of the legal impasse if it excludes the creamy layer as the Mandal commission formula keeps well-heeled OBCs out of the job quota ambit.

But the UPA’s southern allies — the DMK and the PMK — as well as Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party want the creamy layer to be part of the 27 per cent quota.

Kerala survey

The Kerala government today decided to go in for a comprehensive socio-economic survey of OBCs, reports PTI.

Official sources said the move had nothing to do with the study quota logjam.

The survey, to be conducted by the planning and statistics department, will be a prelude to updating of the backward classes list once in 10 years, chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan said.

The date of commencement and duration of the survey will be finalised soon.