Congress demands reservation for Backward Classes in jobs
· Accuses AAP of not violating Punjab law on BC reservations
CHANDIGARH, April 24: The Congress today demanded that the Punjab government must implement the law for providing reservation to Backward Classes in various jobs, including while appointing the Law Officers, passed by the Congress government in Punjab, way back in 2006.
Addressing a press conference at the Punjab Congress Bhawan here today, PCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring along with the Chairman of the OBC Department of the PCC Raj Baksh Kambhoj, Arshpreet Khadial and Barnala MLA Kuldeep Dhillon, said that while it was the Congress government which had passed the law in 2006 providing 12 percent reservation to BCs in various jobs, it was again the Congress government which notified the Act in 2021. He alleged that the Akali-BJP government, which remained in power for ten years, slept over the law.
He said, even the AAP also did the same thing, but when it implemented the law, it did it only partially as it denied the benefit of reservation to the BC community.
The PCC president strongly disputed the claims of the Aam Aadmi Party government that it had implemented reservation policy for the appointment of Law Officers.
IN fact, he revealed, the AAP government had initially not provided any reservation benefit in the appointment of Law Officers. He quoted a letter by the Advocate General’s office, which had claimed that there was no provision for reservations of any sort for the appointment of the Law Officer.
Warring said, it was after about 18 months that the AAP government realized that the reservation benefit was to be provided in the appointment of Law Officers, it decided to go ahead. But, he noted, it was the Congress party and not the AAP which had passed the law to provide reservation in appointment of Law officers not only to SCs, but also to the BCs.
He said, the AAP government has now denied the reservation benefit to the BC community, which must be restored. “The AAP government has only implemented a law which we had passed and notified claiming it to be its own”, he remarked.
