Mayawati claimed that during her tenure, she sent a letter to the then Congress government at the Centre to add these castes in the SC list in a constitutional way and also to increase SC quota. (File photo)Calling the recent decision by the Uttar Pradesh government to include 17 Other Backward Classes (OBC) into Scheduled Caste (SC) as “unconstitutional”, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati Monday said the government has deceived these castes as ‘now they are not going to get benefit from either of the two categories’.
In a statement, Mayawati claimed that the castes are not going to get the benefit because now they are neither OBCs nor SCs as Article 341 of the Constitution bars any government from adding or removing any caste from SC category.
“Because of this I appeal the UP government to not deceive these 17 castes and take back this unconstitutional order. I appeal the central government to follow the constitutional process under Article 341 and then add these castes into the SC list. Also, the SC quota should be increased in the same ratio,” Mayawati said.
The BSP chief said that in past, the Samajwadi Party government had issued a similar order and she had opposed it as well.
Mayawati claimed that during her tenure, she sent a letter to the then Congress government at the Centre to add these castes in the SC list in a constitutional way and also to increase SC quota.
On Friday, the UP government added 17 OBC castes including Rajbhar, Mallah, Prajapati, and Kumhar into the SC category. Directives were given to start issuing new caste certificates to these castes.
