Job reservation in private sector a must : Paswan

Kolkata, Apr 19 (UNI) Union Steel and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said the UPA Government was committed to providing reservation for scheduled castes and tribals in the private sector.

''The Government made a commitment in the Common Minimum Programme to reserve jobs. We are now persuading the private sector to open up this facility. They are not responding but it must be done,'' he said at a meet-the-press programme here.

Mr Paswan said jobs for SC and ST people needed reservation since most of the public sector units, including the Maruti company, were getting converted to private. ''We are bound by the CMP to protect them from losing the reservation facility,'' he said.

In reply to a question, Mr Paswan, whose political stand led to an upheavel in Bihar elections, said his Lok Janshakti Party(LJP) would contest Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on its own with the slogan for installing a Chief Minister from the minority community.

''I raised this slogan in Bihar and will carry it to Uttar Pradesh as well. It is our mission to bring the minority and backward communities to the mainstream and make them a centre of power,'' he said.

Mr Paswan said his slogan had led to the downfall of the Lalu Prasad reign in Bihar and it was expected to draw the 'committed' votes in favour of the LJP.

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