Will there be reservation in the Centre’s new scheme of lateral entry to the bureaucracy? Union Minister and Lok Jan Shakti Party leader Ramvilas Paswan posed this question on Wednesday during a meeting of a Group of Ministers on Dalit issues.
The group met to discuss the confusion over the Supreme Court order on reservation in promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. According to sources, Mr. Paswan asked if the government would follow the reservation policy while allowing lateral recruitment of 10 “outstanding” individuals at the level of Joint Secretary. A senior PMO official who attended the meeting, according to sources, said that as of now, the government had not thought on those lines.
Mr. Paswan told presspersons that the meeting was held to clarify if the Supreme Court order applied to the States too. “There is no room for confusion, the court order is clear, the order is applicable to the State governments too. The Department for Personnel and Training has been told to sent out directions soon to the State governments,” Mr. Paswan said. On the delay in issuing an ordinance to restore certain provisions to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act following a Supreme Court order, Mr. Paswan said the ordinance was ready. “Whenever the government wants it will be issued,” he said.