The ball is now in the government's court to decide on the contentious issues on OBC quota including the creamy layer with the Moily Committee submitting its final report to the Prime Minister's Office.

The committee headed by former Karnataka chief minister Veerappa Moily was assigned the task of preparing a roadmap for implementing quota for OBCs in elite central educational institutions.

"The report has been submitted to the PMO and Moily has sought time from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] to make a presentation on the report," sources in the committee said.

After finalising the report at a meeting on September 27, Moily had suggested a review of implementation of reservation policy every five and 10 years, but left a decision on the controversial issue of "creamy layer" to the government.

The committee's decision to leave the creamy layer issue untouched assumes significance in view of divergent views expressed by political parties.

While Communist Party of India (Marxist) favoured exclusion of creamy layer in the quota regime, United Progressive Alliance's southern allies like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Pattali Makkal Katchi strongly advocated its inclusion.

The prime minister had recently admitted that a consensus on how to handle the creamy layer concept in reservations continues to elude his coalition government. "As of now, we do not have a consensus," he had said.

The committee has recommended setting up of three new Indian Institutes of Management.

Suggesting a Rs 17,200 crore package to put into operation the reservation policy, Moily had said the 54 per cent seat expansion for implementation of 27 per cent reservation could be achieved by 18 per cent every year in a three-year span starting from 2007-08.

The committee also suggested setting up of IIT-type institutions in the country to meet the demand in higher education, citing the success of Indian Institutes of Information Technology.