PUDUCHERRY: VCK leader and MP D Ravikumar has urged Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy to provide reservation to all members of the Scheduled Caste community living in the union territory, without discriminating against migrants. He also sought the implementation of a Supreme Court order that declared two government ordinances, reserving quota for natives, null and void.
Ravikumar's petition highlights the denial of the reservation to SCs, who migrated to Puducherry after 1964. Two ordinances issued by the Puducherry government in 2005 reserved quota for natives, and denied reservation to migrant SCs in group C and D jobs, promotions, and higher education. The Puducherry Scheduled Caste People's Welfare Association challenged the ordinances, following which the Supreme Court invalidated those.
Addressing the media, Ravikumar said Puducherry currently grants reservations to SC, OBC, and EWS categories. A government order from 2001 added the Other Backward Classes (OBC). The SCs, however, were excluded and instead divided into locals and migrants. This practice continues despite being ruled against by the Supreme Court in 2014. Thus, Ravikumar sought for an ordinance that emulates the 2001 OBC reservation order. This, he said, will eliminate caste-based conflicts in the UT.