WB-MEVANI-QUOTA

Gujarat independent MLA and

Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani said Sunday that the Centre's move

to provide 10 per cent quota to upper caste poor is a step

towards realizing the RSS-BJP's agenda to remove caste-based

reservations from the system.

President Ram Nath Kovind Saturday gave his assent to

the constitutional provision to provide 10-per cent

reservation in government jobs and education to economically

backward section in the general category. The bill was passed

by the Parliament on January 9.

"I am apprehensive and so are the members of the

Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class that

this is the first step towards putting an end to the

reservation on the ground of socio-educational deprivation.

"It has been a long-pending agenda of the RSS-BJP to

discard the Constitution and end reservation based on caste

system," Mewani said on the sidelines of a programme here.

The Independent MLA also said that the quota system

was introduced in the country to give representation to

socially and educationally backward people, it wasn't meant to

end poverty.

"We have absolutely no issues with the poor people

from the other communities getting any benefit. But

reservation is not meant to remove poverty.

"It is meant to give representation to SC/ST/OBC

people, who on account of the society's caste structure, have

remained socially and educationally backward," he said.

Congratulating BSP supremo Mayawati and SP supremo

Akhilesh Yadav for stitching an alliance in Uttar Pradesh

against the BJP, Mewani said the other opposition parties

should also take cue from the coalition and make efforts for

maximum polarisation of anti-BJP votes.