Nitish supports demand for reservation in job promotions

Speed Post News Network

Patna : JD(U) national president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on December 4, 2017, strongly supported the demand for a constitutional amendment for introducing reservation in job promotions. “We have always been for reservations in promotions. We had introduced this provision for the SCs and STs in Bihar. It was challenged and struck down by the high court. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court,” Nitish told mediapersons on the sidelines of his weekly ‘Lok-Samvad’ programme.

Nitish was responding to a question on a statement by Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan that his party was planning to write to PM Narendra Modi for bringing in a constitutional amendment to facilitate reservations in promotions while taking into account the conditions laid down by the Supreme Court in this regard. “If Paswan wants to take an initiative in this direction, we welcome it. The issue of reservation in promotions needs to be debated in Parliament,” the Bihar CM said.

Trashing the speculation that such a move could lead to a compromise as far as merit was concerned, Nitish said there was nothing wrong in supporting a community which was grossly under-represented in a certain service at a certain rank.

The CM also reiterated that he was in favour of reservations in the private sector which is providing more jobs now-a-days than the public sector and that the basis for introducing quotas can’t be economic backwardness but social and educational backwardness. When asked about the poor among the upper castes, Nitish said, “They can be supported through measures like scholarships. We are doing that in Bihar.”

Nitish, however, said it must be understood that reservation is meant for the limited purpose of enabling the deprived sections of the society to avail of equal opportunities.