VP proposes referendum to implement reservation

Lucknow, Mar 29 (UNI) Former prime minister VP Singh today said the present UPA government should go for a people's referandum before going ahead to provide reservation for OBCs in higher institutions of education.

'' The Centre should first go for a referendum or pass a legislation in Parliament to provide reservation,'' he said.

Talking to mediapersons Mr Singh, who spearheaded the implementation of the Mandal Commission report in the late eighties, said ''I don't think why the Centre is in such a hurry to implement the policy when the census report is not supporting it.'' ''The Centre should wait for the new census or can carry out a special official survey on castes to implement the reservation,'' he added.

Commenting on his approach on implementation of the Mandal Commission report, he said ''we had done everything as per the norms and besides this census was in our favour.'' Earlier today, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of reservation to the OBCs in higher technical institutions as mooted by the Centre on the grounds that old census on castes should not be the ground for providing reservation.

UNI