Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Thursday mooted 25 per cent reservation to economically backward among upper castes, saying the move will bring social unity.
The Minister told reporters here that as people from various castes were demanding reservation, there was a need to provide them 25 per cent quota by putting all such castes in one category, without touching the 49.9 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (27 per cent), Scheduled Castes (15 per cent) and Scheduled Tribes (7.5 per cent).
He said the creamy layer among these castes should be excluded from reservation.
He said that during a recent meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), he on behalf of his Republican Party of India (RPI) had placed this demand before Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"I told him that one of the many reasons for the atrocities on Dalits is reservation. Some castes hold a grouse that the Dalits get reservation while they don't," he said.
Athawale said Jats, Patidars and Marathas and others were demanding reservation in government jobs and educational institutions.
He said the economically backward among the Brahmins and also sections of Muslims not covered under OBCs could also be brought under this category.
"The problem is that reservation is given on the basis of social backwardness. It is difficult to give reservation to the upper castes.
But if a legislation is passed to amend these guidelines, the economically backward among these castes can get reservation and this will be a good decision for the country," the RPI leader said.
On the demand from some SC sub-castes for categorisation of reservation, he said it would not be possible to give separate reservation to each and every sub-caste. He pointed out that there are 1,264 sub-castes among SCs across the country.
The RPI leader said he wanted the National Democratic Alliance government to pass a bill in Parliament to provide reservation in government job promotions to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. He said the demand for the same was coming from many quarters.
He said SC/ST employees' interests were affected after the Supreme Court struck down reservation in promotions.
--IANS
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