KOTTAYAM/T’PURAM: The proposal for 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections among forward communities in government jobs sparked a debate on Monday.
While the nair Service Society (nSS) demanded that the state government implement the proposal with retrospective effect, the SnDP Yogam said the proportion be brought down to 5%. The nSS wants the reservation announced by the central government implemented from January 3, 2020, the day Kerala decided to go ahead with it. In a statement issued in Kottayam, nSS general secretary G Sukumaran nair took strong exception to the terms and conditions in the state government notificat i on t o imp l ement the reservation.
“Though the Centre had made a constitutional amendment to implement 10% reservation for economically weaker sections in forward communities in January 2019, the state government approved the same only on January 3, 2020,” nair said. He said the state government took another eight months to make changes to the Kerala State and Subordinate Rules (KSSR) to implement the reservation, despite issuing an order on February 12, 2020, with regard to the terms and conditions for the same.
“Hence, the recruitments made and advice memos issued since January 3, 2020, should be revised to ensure reservation for eWS candidates with retrospective effect,” he said.
Reacting to the nSS statement, SnDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally natesan said the reservation for the economically backward among forward communities should be fixed at 5%. Vellappally said he was not against providing reservation to the poor among the forward communities. “The state government has made an error. It is not right to provide 10% reservation to the forward communities,” he said in Cherthala.
Kunhalikutty criticises decision to implement 10 per cent reservation
In his evening news briefing, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan justified the government decision and said it was part of LDf’s 2016 assembly election manifesto.
“The RSS has been trying to scuttle the existing reservation for backward communities. The LDf is committed to retaining the reservation in government jobs to all backward communities, and thereby helping them climb up the social and economic ladder,” the CM said. Earlier, IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty too had criticised the decision to implement the 10 per cent reservation. If implemented, it would keep the “backward communities backward”, he had said.
LDf convenor A Vijayaraghavan, speaking in Malappuram, pointed out that IUML did not protest when the central government introduced job reservation for forward communities. He said the League was taking up the job quota issue now to take political mileage in the upcoming elections. In his statement, Sukumaran Nair said Rule 15 (a) of the Amendment Act stated that vacancies in the EWS category reported in a recruitment year need not be left vacant if no candidates are available. The rule further stated the same can be filled from the general category.
“This rule is against equal justice as vacancies in the other backward classes (OBC) and the SC/ST categories are left vacant in view of No Candidate Available (NCA). Hence, special recruitment should be done to fill NCA vacancies in EWS sections at least twice. If NCA still exists, such vacancies should be filled in open competition (general category) from the non-reservation communities,” he said. The NSS general secretary also criticised the recruitment turn set by the government for the EWS reservation category candidates. “As per the proposed system, EWS reservation candidates would get an appointment only if there are more than nine vacancies. The turn should be revised in recruitment to the last grade and other categories,” he added.