Mumbai, Aug 16 (UNI) Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar on Monday demanded that the central government should conduct a caste-based Census, provide empirical data to states and hike the cap on reservations above 50 per cent.
Addressing a news conference here at party office he termed the recent Constitutional Amendment restoring power to states to have their own OBC quota lists for reserving government jobs and education as “a fraud”.
He said that unless the 50 per cent quota limit imposed by the Supreme Court in its 1992 landmark verdict is relaxed, the states cannot prepare their own lists of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs).
“In reality, it (the Amendment) will be of no use... The Centre took away the rights of the states around a couple of years ago to prepare and maintain their SEBC lists and that has been restored now. The government has betrayed the OBCs. Today, almost all states have more than 50 per cent reservations,” said Mr Pawar sharply.
Giving details, the NCP chief said the percentages for different states are: Madhya Pradesh–63 per cent, Tamil Nadu-69 pc, Haryana-57 pc, Rajasthan–54 pc, Lakshadweep-100 pc, Nagaland-80 pc, Mizoram-80 pc, Meghalaya-80 pc, Arunachal Pradesh-80 pc, Maharashtra-65 pc, Haryana-67 pc, Rajasthan-64 pc, Telangana-62 pc, Tripura-60 pc, Jharkhand-60 pc, Uttar Pradesh-59 pc, Himachal-60 pc, Gujarat-59 pc, Karnataka- 50 pc, etc.
He pointed out that since the Centre is silent on the issue of relaxing the 50 per cent quota limits, the Maharashtra government will be in no position to restore proposed 12 per cent in education and 13 per cent in government jobs for the Maratha community, that was scrapped by the Supreme Court in May.
While, the Centre later gave a 10 per cent quota for Economically Weaker Sections, almost 90 per cent states have exceeded the 50 per cent quota limits, so the Centre’s move will be of no use now, Mr Pawar added.
UNI AAA SS 2059