SC/ST Fed plans counter stir on reservation issue

Kochi, May 5 (UNI) Terming the anti-reservation protests by Delhi medico students as ''mere farce'', the Federation of SC and ST has decided to launch a nation-wide agitation to counter it.

Leaders of the Federation, which moved the Supreme Court through some students on the issue and won an interim order triggering a series of protests, said they were coordinating with similar organisations in all states to support the campaign.

''The forward community comprised only 23 per cent of the population and is now demanding the entire bulk of seats in professional colleges, by raising a non-issue over the remarks by Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh who only referred to a Constitutional Amendment,'' Federation general secretary K K Krishnankutty told a press conference here today.

''We are not asking for anything new. We were given 10 per cent reservation in PG courses in Kerala. But it went down by half from 2005 after 50 per cent seats were allotted to the national quota.

That prompted us to approach the apex court,'' said its legal advisor Advocate K A Balan.

''The claims of Delhi medicos are narrow-minded, baseless and spring from a fascist mentality. As the forward community gets 50 per cent seats, the backward communities comprising 52 per cent of the population should also get proportional reservation,'' he added.

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