Junior doctors celebrate in Patna on Thursday. (PTI)

New Delhi, April 10: The Centre is planning to persuade ill-equipped universities and institutions to introduce OBC reservations this year — the last leg before the 2009 general elections.

The human resource development ministry is finalising a note asking all central higher education institutions how prepared they are to implement the quotas this year, officials told The Telegraph.

The notification may be issued as soon as tomorrow, sources said.

Human resource development minister Arjun Singh has asked the ministry to ascertain how central institutions may react to the implementation of quotas this year. Based on the feedback, a second note enforcing the quotas may be issued, the sources said.

“We will try our best to introduce OBC reservations this year. It’s a welcome decision, and a landmark judgment,” Arjun told reporters soon after the apex court delivered the verdict.

Higher education institutions have up to three years to raise student intake to ensure 27 per cent reservation for OBCs without reducing the general category seats from their current number.

But most of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management are not yet ready with more hostel or classroom facilities, officials across the establishments said.

Many central universities said they, too, lacked the infrastructure now to take “any increase in seats”.

The government, however, is unlikely to give complaining institutes any more than a patient hearing — a scenario officials at the IITs and the IIMs appeared prepared for.

The officials had a common refrain — implementation of reservations in a phased manner can be started this year but is likely to lead to an embarrassing crunch in facilities.

The IIMs, which were to declare their final list of selected candidates for 2008-09 tomorrow, are now likely to go into a huddle.

“We have decided to defer the release of results,” IIM Ahmedabad director Sameer Barua said. The directors are expected to either meet or hold a teleconference within the next two days.

“The decision to defer has been taken to give ourselves some time to weigh our options. We may release the list of selected students in a week,” another director said.

The IIMs recently raised their fees over concerns of a funds crunch in implementing the quotas, and directors admitted that the institutes were struggling to find an argument to counter a government push for reservations this year.

“The only argument we have is the ground reality that we are ill-equipped to deal with an increase in seats as of now,” another director said.

Ministry officials, however, contested the argument, claiming that all higher education institutes “were set” to enforce the quotas last year itself, before the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the reservations.

Arjun, considered by many the architect of the OBC reservation law, said he “hoped” higher education institutions would now “not have any problems” in implementing the quotas.

“Thousands of ordinary students will benefit. OBCs will finally be able to come forward,” the minister said.