Reservations are a ploy for vote bank politics

[karira]

As reported by Rakesh Lohumi of Tribune News Service in himachal.us on 11 January 2008:
Reservations are a ploy for vote bank politics | Himachal Pradesh

Reservations are a ploy for vote bank politics

Ministers prefer general category staff


Shimla, January 11
While political leaders of various parties keep pleading for expanding the scope of reservations in jobs, but when they come to power and occupy ministerial berths, they mostly pose faith in officers from the general category.

The ministers have full freedom to choose their personal staff. However, while exercising that discretion, they somehow end up favouring the general category. This interesting fact came to light after RTI activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya gathered information from the Government of India under the Right to Information Act.

Out of the total staff of 229 pertaining to 48 union ministries for which information was made available, 206 were from the general category. The percentage came to 90. Of the remaining, 11 officers were from the Scheduled Castes (SC), two from the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 10 from Other Backward Classes (OBC).

Out of the 48 private secretaries, 43 were from the general category, four from SC and one from ST categories. Similarly, of the total 71 additional private secretaries, 67 were from the general category, one from SC and three from OBC categories. In case of assistant private secretaries, 60 out of the total 67 were from the general category, six from SC and one from ST. Out of the total 43 1st personal assistants, 36 were from general category while seven were from the OBC category.

Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, who has emerged as a crusader for the reserved categories under the UPA regime, has not opted for even a single officer from the reserved category. All seven officers in his personal staff were from the general category.

Similar is the case of Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav. He has four officers in his personal staff and none of them is from the reserved category. All six officers chosen by the commerce minister are also from the general category.

While all officers in the personal staff of Shipping and Surface Transport Minister TR Balu are from the general category, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has opted for an assistant private secretary from the SC category while his other four officers are from the general category. Minster for Social Justice And Empowerment Mira Kumar has opted for an assistant private secretary and 1st personal assistant from the SC category while the other four are from the general category.

Bhattacharya says the information exposes the double face of the leaders for whom reservation is merely a ploy to pursue vote-bank politics. If they ignore the reserved categories in making appointments where they have a free hand, what moral right they have to plead for reservation. Had the politicians been sincere about uplifting the needy and really deserving among the deprived sections, they will not have raised the creamy layer limit to reward the rich and the influential and restricted the reservation benefit to one-time for a family, he says.

[Dr. M. Faiyazuddin]

Very interesting revelations indeed. I commend RTI activist Dev Ashish Bhattacharya who gathered information from the Government of India under the Right to Information Act.

[Sanjay Reddy]

This article specifies how much these politicains are worried about the lower caste people for whom the reservations are ment for(which are the gimicks played by the politicians) and the normal people are paying very huge price for these reservations.

Thanks
Sanjay

[Mukesh JAin]

I feel that reservation is not the right way to help the society weekest link who were deprive dof the basic needs to develop the people. All shall have equal rights .To help the persons who are week Government shall take the redposiblity to bring them to main strem by inparting educational,Technical, other needs by providing special facility tothem in each state by 100% contributing their requirements and then a Selection Proceedure shall be adopted to evaluate them and further impart the Training and then shall be inserted tothe main stream ie institutions where they can prove to be usefull for the society.
They shall not have complex in their mind .They are at par with any Indian citizen.
Reservation is not helping

Mukesh

[karira]

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