BHOPAL: A 2009 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in Madhya Pradesh has voiced concern over a few select families getting the benefits of caste-based reservation in the country.
Posted currently as superintendent of police of Ratlam district, Amit Singh has shared the pains of not being able to make it to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre, despite securing the 144th rank in Union Public Service Commission exam.
“I am not against caste-based reservations at all, but it should be given to needy and deserving candidates, instead of those who are already well to do and economically capable and prosperous,” said Singh while addressing a public function to felicitate meritorious students.
Singh, 38, who is himself a Kshatriya from Pratapgarh district of UP, at the same function in Ratlam on Sunday, opposed the demand of another speaker, who sought reservation for Kshatriyas.
“After cracking the UPSC exam, when I went for training to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, there were many successful candidates from the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and OBC categories. But there was one among them, who despite being more than 400 ranks lower got the IAS slot, while I ended up becoming an IPS officer, despite securing the 144th rank,” lamented Singh.
“Importantly, that successful civil services candidate’s parents already were IAS officers and he had himself passed out of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), before cracking the UPSC exam in the reserved category. Even the founding father of Indian Constitution Dr BR Ambedkar envisaged that caste based reservation in real terms should be granted to those deserving it,” said Singh.
While reiterating that he was not against caste based reservation, Singh said the creamy layer in caste based reservation should be properly defined to ensure that it doesn’t become the property of a select few families from the reserved categories.
Singh’s statement though made at a public function assumes significance at a time when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat (who in September 2015 had pitched for reviewing the system of the reservation policy) is in Bhopal for the three-days national executive meet of the Sangh starting on October 12.