NDA supports UPA's decision on Jat reservation

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government today supported UPA regime's decision to include the Jat community in the Central OBC list for providing reservation and refuted the allegation in the Supreme Court that it was done to gain political mileage in the general elections.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the NDA government contended that Centre had acted bonafide and in public interest after considering the ground realities.

"As regards averments that the central government with a motive to gain benefit for the ruling parties in the forthcoming general election issued the said notification, this fact is denied as unfounded. It is respectfully submitted that the central government has acted bonafide and in public interest," the 28-page affidavit said.

The Centre contended that the Cabinet took into account the findings of a report of Expert Committee constituted by Indian Council for Social Science and Research ( ICSSR) before taking the decision.

It said that government rejected the view of National Commission for Backward Classes and took the decision on the basis of findings of the expert committee. Centre also said that nine states have already included Jats in their lists of OBCs.

"Cabinet was of the view that the Commission has not adequately taken into account the ground realities and therefore decided not to accept the advice tendered by the Commission and decided to include Jat community in the Central List of OBCs for the nine states namely Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan(Bharatpur and Dhaulpur), Uttrakhand, UP and Delhi," it said.

The apex court had on April 9 rejected a plea to stay Centre's poll-eve notification to include the Jat community.