Lok Janshakti Party asks govt to implement OBC reservation

New Delhi, Mar 31 (UNI) The ruling UPA's ally Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) today said the government should implement reservation for OBCs in higher education institutes from the academic year 2007-2008 by getting the Supreme Court stay vacated.

The party leaders, who met here, said the government should not hesitate to implement the Act in toto regarding OBC's along with SCs and STs, against whom there is no stay by the court.

They maintained that reservation for OBCs was only 27 per cent while surveys gave their population much more than this, LJP leader Ramchander Paswan said.

Expressing their resentment over the court order, they said the Supreme Court in 1992 had fully enumerated all facts and held them as valid, therefore, data required for reservation was adequate.

Referring to another reason for the Court's stay order, was they said it because of non-exclusion of creamy layer of OBCs in the present Act, unanimously enacted by Parliament. They said the Mandal case judgement of 1992 by a nine-member Constitutional Bench laid down creamy layer rule only in the employment sector under Article 16(4) of the Constitution.

The party's wing, Dalit Sena, also took out a protest rally at Jantar Mantar today expressing its anguish against the court verdict and said hidden attempts were being made by upper castes people, well entrenched in the administration to delay the implmentation of reservation for OBCs on one or the other pretext.

UNI