No One Has The Strength To Abolish Reservation For SCs, STs And OBCs: Nitish

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said no person in this country has the power to abolish the constitutional provision of reservation for schedule castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes (SCs, STs and OBCs).

Addressing a ‘Yuva Sammelan’ convened by the Congress-turned-JD(U) leader Ashok Choudhary at the SK Memorial Hall here, the chief minister asked the youths not to get influenced by some leaders who claim that attempts are being made to abolish the reservation system.

“Today, no person in the country has (political) will power to even interfere in the constitutional provisions for providing quota to the members of SC, ST and OBC. No one can dare to abolish it,” Nitish said amid thunderous applause from the audience comprising mainly youths.

Attacking RJD chief Lalu Prasad without taking his name, Nitish said an unsuccessful attempt was made in 1993 (when Lalu was the chief minister in Bihar) to abolish the Karpoori Thakur formula – which provides separate quota for backward classes (BCs) and extremely backward classes (EBCs) – by introducing the Mandal Commission’s formula in the state government’s jobs. “But, I protested it tooth and nail and got the proposal stalled,” he said.

He said that former CM Karpoori Thakur, while introducing quota for backward classes during the Janata Party’s regime, had made separate provisions of quota for BCs and EBCs. “The Mandal Commission’s formula provides a joint quota of 27% for entire backward classes. The implementation of Mandal formula in Bihar government jobs might have adversely affected the interests of EBCs,” he said.

Source: TOI