OBC quota in medical colleges late step aimed at electoral benefits, says Mayawati

LUCKNOW: BSP president Mayawati on Friday said the reservation for OBCs in the medical and dental courses of government colleges came late and it is now being perceived as aimed at reaping electoral benefits.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief also said her party has been demanding filling up the backlog in the reserved category seats in government jobs, but the Centre and the government in Uttar Pradesh and other states have been indifferent to it.

In a tweet in Hindi, the BSP chief said, "Declaration of OBC quota in all-India UG and PG seats of government medical colleges in the country is a very late step. Had the Centre taken the decision earlier, they would have benefitted a lot by now, but now people see this decision as having been taken to serve electoral interests."

"Although the BSP has been continuously demanding filling up of the backlog posts of the SC, ST and OBC quota in government jobs for a long time, the governments of different states, including that of UP, and the Centre have remained indifferent towards the real interest and welfare of these sections. This is very unfortunate," the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister said.

The Centre on Thursday announced a 27-per cent quota for OBCs and 10 per cent reservation for the economically weaker sections in the All India Quota scheme for the undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses from the current academic year, 2021-2022.