RAISING SC quota under Govt consideration

New Delhi, June 11 (UNI) The 50 per cent ceiling on quota fixed by the Supreme Court would be violated if the percentage of reservation for Scheduled Castes(SC) is raised from the 15 per cent to 16.23 per cent, a proposal being actively considered by the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry.

The move comes in the midst of the raging controversy over the government decision to provide 27 per cent reservation to Other Backward Classes(OBCs) in the higher educational institutions.

The argument given by the Ministry is that there has been an increase in the SC population which should be reflected in the percentage of reservation, sources in the Ministry said The move is being favourably mulled by Minister Meira Kumar, they said.

The increase in the number of beneficiaries of the quota has been is also due to inclusion of several castes in the category.

The Ministry argues that the increase in the quota percentage would not be a novel step as it has already happened once. The percentage fixed at 12.5 per cent in 1953 had to be raised to 15 per cent in 1970 after the SC population was found to have increased as per the 1961 Census.

At present the total reservation percentage comes close to 49.5 -- 15 per cent for SC, 7.5 per cent Scheduled Tribes and 27 percent for OBCs, and the limit of 50 per cent set by the Supreme Court would be violated if the government goes ahead to implement the proposal.

The Social Justice and Empowerment Minister had also recently warned the industry that the Government will have to go for legilsation to enforce quota in the private sector if they did not do it voluntarily.

UNI NAZ MA BST1407