Odisha govt urged for legal protection to OBC quota

BHUBANESWAR: Close on the heels of the decision of the Karnataka government to move the Centre for providing legal protection to enhanced reservation for scheduled categories and other backward classes in government jobs and educational institutions, a similar demand is getting louder from political parties and organisations fighting for the rights of the vast majority of OBCs in Odisha.

The BJP which has been crticising the State government for not fulfilling the constitutional mandate of providing 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in jobs and education, urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to approach the Centre to give a shield from judicial review of the quota exceeding the 50 per cent benchmark held by the Supreme Court. “When a State like Karnataka has made a provision of 32 per cent reservation for OBCs, there is no justification for keeping the reservation at 11.25 per cent in Odisha. The BJD government has proved that it is anti-OBC by deliberately denying majority population their constitutional rights,” said State BJP OBC Morcha president Surath Biswal.

In a belated move, the State government decided to keep 10 per cent seats in technical institutions reserved for economically weaker sections (EWS) but the demand of the OBC is still not fulfilled, he said. Former Union Minister Srikanta Jena said only six per cent general category population are getting 60 per cent reservation while 94 per cent of the population (ST, SC and OBC) are getting 40 per cent reservation.