UPA govt will not change its stand on reservation policy: Paswan

Shillong, June 3 (UNI) Union Minister for Chemicals&Fertilisers and Steel Ram Vilas Paswan today asserted that the crisis over the reservation policy has been ''solved'' and made it clear that the UPA government will not retract from its stand taken on the issue.

Mr Paswan said the stalemate triggered by agitation over the reservation policy has been ''solved'' with the doctors resuming duty.

The Union Minister, while justifying the need on reservation for uplift of weaker section, also sought to bring home the point that the students of medical colleges who had paid capitation fees were mainly involved in the more than two-week-long stir that severely affected the functioning of hospitals and medical colleges in several parts of the country, including the prestigious AIIMS in Delhi.

He, however, exuded confidence that the crisis had been solved since the agitators had already resumed duty following a Supreme Court verdict.

Mr Paswan arrived here on three-day visit to the capital during which he inaugurated a two-day Hindi Salahkar Samiti meeting of Ministry of Steel this afternoon.

Talking to UNI here, the Lok Jansakti Party president accused the BJP of playing a ''dual politics'' in the ongoing controversy over the reservation policy.

Mr Paswan made it clear that the present Congress-led UPA government at the Centre would not change its stand on the issue.

'' Nobody can change this policy and not even by a new government as the same has been passed through the constitution,'' Mr Paswan said.

He appealed to the BJP to do away with its ''dual politics'' and make its stand clear on this issue.

Mr Paswan, once an ally of the BJP-led NDA government termed his former partner as ''anti-SC/ST/OBC and Mandal Commission''.

''How long can they look down upon us,'' the Union Minister stated.

He strongly advocated the continuation of reservation saying, ''it should stay as long as discrimination against the minority communities in the country continues''.

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