LJP demands SC/ST job promotion quota

NEW DELHI: LJP today made a strong pitch for early introduction of a Bill in Parliament to ensure promotion for SC/ST candidates in government job and said any further delay in this matter will adversely impact a large section of population.

"We strongly demand that the government should without any delay introduce the necessary bill in the Parliament to ensure reservation in promotion for SC/ST and put it to vote so that what is rightfully due to SC/ST is ensured in the future," LJP chief and Rajya Sabha Member Ramvilas Paswan told reporters here.

Accusing the Congress-led UPA government of resorting to various tactics to delay the Bill, he said, "The Bill has been amended several times to ensure due benefits to SC/ST but during the eight-year-long tenure of UPA government, nothing has been done to take up this issue."

As representatives of the SC community, we have met the Prime Minister six times in last seven years but we got only empty promises, Paswan alleged.

LJP had recently participated in an all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to build a consensus on this issue.

While most of the political parties agreed for a detailed discussion on the issue, Samajwadi Party opposed it.

"What is the need for calling an all-party meeting on this issue? It did not happen before previous amendments on it. Congress perhaps is trying to project itself as a little more democratic than other," Paswan said.

Asked how the Bill will be presented when the opposition has decided to stall the Parliament demanding resignation of Prime Minister on allocation of coal blocks issue, he said, "It will start functioning sooner or latter but before that we must make our views clear on this issue."