Buddha announces 10 pc quota in govt jobs for poor Muslims

KOLKATA: The Left Front in West Bengal on Monday attempted to hijack the minority quota move of political competitors by appropriating a part of the Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations and announcing a 10% quota in state government jobs for Muslims.

However, the Left’s anxiety to skirt constitutional hurdles prompted the government to broaden the OBC quota for implementing the promise. “Ten per cent of jobs in our government will be kept reserved for members of the minority community who are educationally, socially and economically backward in our state,” chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee announced at the Writers’ Buildings. He also said his government had taken a further step of identifying such people among Muslims, and “after the process of identification is over, we will provide job reservation for them” .

Mr Bhattacharjee, however, made it clear that right now his government was not going to introduce quota system in the education sector for the minority community even though the Ranganath Mishra Commission had made such a recommendation

In West Bengal already 22% government jobs are reserved for the SC, 6% for the ST and 7% for OBCs. Another 10% reservation for backward Muslims will lead to a situation in which 45% of the government jobs will be kept reserved and general community people will now have 55% of government jobs left for them.

A state government official said that the government might reserve another 4% of its jobs, which will led to a situation in which 49% government jobs will be kept reserved under various heads.

Mr Bhattacharjee’s announcement comes at a time when 82 municipalities in the state, including the Kolkata Municipal
Corporation, will go for polls within a few months followed by the assembly elections in 2011. During the last Lok Sabha elections, held in 2009, a huge chunk of Muslim votes are believed to have gone in favour of the opposition Trinamool Congress, following which CPM lost 17 Lok Sabha seats alone to Ms Mamata Banerjee’s party.

CPM was trying hard to overcome the damage done to its electoral performance and had been trying to woo the minority vote bank at any cost. The Ranganath Mishra Commission recommendations have given it an immediate opportunity before the civic elections and the chief minister did not spare time in grabbing the opportunity.

Mr Bhattacharjee’s announcement was welcomed by the Left Front constituents and senior CPM leaders said on Monday that “the chief minister has gone by his own slogan of do it now while implementing the Mishra commission recommendations.”

RSP leader and PWD minister Kshiti Goswami, however, said the government should be cautious in identifying backward members of the minority community . “We welcome the government’s move, but want it to be cautious so that creamy layer in the minority population cannot exploit the opportunity made for the really deprived persons in the community.”

Congress refused to react. When asked to comment on the chief minister’s announcement, Union finance minister and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pranab Mukherjee said: “I am not a state government’s man. Whatever you want to ask, you should ask the state government.”

Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee also refused to offer any immediate reaction. “Let me find out what exactly the government is planning to do and I will comment only after that,” Mr Chatterjee said when asked to comment.