New Delhi: Union consumer affairs minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan has advanced a suggestion to give 15 percent reservation in jobs to poor people belonging to upper castes.
“Even among upper castes there are poor people, they shouldn’t feel discriminated as they are not given facilities like that of Dalits, tribals and backward classes. So our party forwarded suggestion to give 15 percent reservation to poor people of upper castes,” LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan told ANI.
Bihar industry minister Jai Kumar Singh also pitched for a similar demand, seeking the formation of a ‘Swarn Aayog’ (Commission for the Upper Castes) by the Centre to provide reservation to the poor among the upper castes in the country.
The minister said that Bihar had already set up such a panel and the central government should follow suit at the national level as well.
“We are not against reservation to Scheduled Castes and Tribes and the Other Backward Classes, but want reservation for the poor among the upper castes as well, since their socio-economic condition was no better than that of the poor Dalits and OBCs,” he said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar had set up the Bihar Rajya Swarn Aayog in 2011 to look into the grievances of the poor among the upper castes and take steps for their socio-economic empowerment, including reservation, if necessary. Even after six years, the panel hasn’t submitted any report or made any recommendations for reservation to the poor among the upper castes.
Demand for reservation on the basis of economic status has been raised from time to time by some politicians. Recently, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, proposed a 25 percent reservation to the economically backward section among upper castes including Brahmins, saying the move would bring about social unity.
