NEW DELHI, 27 April 2006 — Police tear-gassed hundreds of students protesting against government plans to increase the number of places reserved for India’s poor in top education institutions, AFP reporters said yesterday.

Water cannons were also turned on the students. Several were injured, protest leaders said. Trouble erupted when some 700 medical students who gathered in the heart of the capital New Delhi were stopped from marching to the house of federal human resources development minister Arjun Singh. The students, shouting “Down with (minister) Singh”, were dispersed, a police spokesman said.

Some were bundled into police vans, others tear-gassed or soaked. “We will try to mobilize all college and school students and put thousands of students on the streets tomorrow,” said student leader Anirubh Lochan.

Singh has announced the government was planning legislation to reserve up to 50 percent of places for medical, engineering and management studies for what India calls “economically and socially-backward” students.

At present 22.5 percent of places are reserved in some leading private and state-owned educational establishments.

Upper-caste students oppose reservation, saying places at top colleges should be awarded on merit.

The government says reservations will allow millions from the lower sections of India’s caste hierarchy the opportunity to enjoy the best education available.

Such moves find favor with India’s masses. “In India, large sections of society are not directly benefiting from India’s economic reforms (launched in 1991) and the strides it is making geo-politically,” said Rashid Kidwai, political analyst.

“This is social empowerment, a vote winning proposition. It is in keeping with the Congress-led coalition government’s poll promise (in May 2004) to ensure that the benefits of liberalization reach the masses,” he said.

Huge student protests against place reservations in 1991 resulted in large-scale violence and led to the fall of then federal coalition government.