NEW DELHI: The government today announced 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and higher education for economically weaker sections in the general category and said it would move a constitutional amendment bill to bring it into effect. The mega move, just months before the national election, was approved in a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi today. The constitutional amendment bill is likely to be moved tomorrow.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
- Those who earn less than Rs. 8 lakh a year, have less than five acre land qualify for the quota, said Union Minister Vijay Sampla.
- "This was a long-standing demand but only the Modi government had the courage to do it. Brahmins, baniyas, Christians, Muslims, all will benefit from this," Vijay Sampla said.
- The minister said the decision should not be seen as political as it is "the government's duty to understand the feelings of the people and fulfil their needs".
- The government's big move comes at a time the ruling BJP is seen by many to have lost its invincibility after its election defeats to the Congress in three major heartland states.
- Sources say the bill has to be a constitutional amendment as it overshoots the Supreme Court's 50 per cent cap on quotas and takes the total to 60 per cent. Any increase from that limit will be subject to judicial scrutiny and is unlikely to get parliamentary approval immediately.
- It may be a tough legal prospect but it serves the purpose of telegraphing the government's commitment to the general population that does not have reservations, sources said. BJP leaders said a large section of upper caste and middle class voters were upset with the ruling BJP over quotas only for Scheduled Caste and Tribes and Other Backward Castes (SC/STs and OBCs).
- Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged an election gimmick and tweeted: "Didn't you think of this for four years and eight months? So obviously thought of as election gimmick three months before model code."
- Another union minister, Shiv Pratap Shukla, said the decision "has nothing to do with polls" as the party had got considerable votes from the upper castes in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
- In a 1992 order, the Supreme Court had capped reservations in government jobs and education at 50 per cent. But in an order in July 2010, it allowed states to exceed that limit if they had solid scientific data to justify the increase.
- Former union minister Yashwant Sinha, who recently quit the BJP, called the move a "jumla" and tweeted: "...the proposal is bristling with legal complications and there is no time for getting it passed through both houses of parliament. Government stands completely exposed."
- SOURCE
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