Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, Jul 1:
As in the case of the Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST), reserved quotas for candidates belonging to Other backward Classes (OBC) would be provided for admission in educational institutions as well as in recruitment for jobs in the State.
This was announced by Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh on the last day of the monsoon session of the Assembly today while responding to a Private Member Resolution moved by Opposition MLAs O Joy and Dr Nimaichand Luwang.
Tabling his Private Member Resolution, Joy observed that failure of the State Government to implement the Central directive to reserve 22 percent of the posts/seats has deprived the rights of the minority Muslims and others like Meitei, Nepali , etc who belong to OBC.
The difficulty is more so for Minority Muslims who cannot take up Technical Education as they have to appear in the entrance test in General category, he maintained.
Based on the report of 1971, there is already 33 percent reservation (2 percent for SC and 31 percent for ST), so there should not be any difficulty in keeping 22 seats reserved for OBC, Joy contended.
Charging the SPF Government of negligence towards the plight of the minorities, Dr Nimaichand Luwang recalled that the matter was brought to the notice of the Govt on July 31, 2002 by MLA L Ibomcha.
At that time the Chief Minister had given his assurance to take up measures for reserving seats for OBC very soon.
But the same has not been implemented till date, he said, adding this only shows the negligence of the Government towards the plight of the minorities.
In the same vein, Dr Luwang also attacked the two Muslim MLAs and one Minister who are in the SPF Govt as representatives of minority communities of doing nothing in this regard.
There had been reports in the newspapers exerting pressure for appointing Minister who represent minorities in the Cabinet, but the same Minister has not considered any development plan for the people whom he represented, he charged.
Although, MLA L Ibomcha supported the Private Member Resolution, he pointed out that giving 22 percent of the seats reserved for OBC would not be possible as there had been a directive of the Central Government as well as a Ruling of the Supreme Court which says that the total number of seat reservation should not exceed 50 percent.
In the light of these directive and court ruling, there could at the most for 17 percent reserved for OBC, which he maintained is still better instead of having nothing.
Listening to all these viewpoints, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh who is the leader of House informed that arrangement has been made for constituting a Commission while giving his assurance matter would be implemented very soon.
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