E-Paper
State commission recommends bifurcation of 20% SC quota in Haryana
The Haryana State Commission for Scheduled Castes has recommended that one-half of the 20% quota reserved for the Scheduled Castes in government jobs will be set aside for candidate from deprived Scheduled Castes comprising 36 castes such as Balmikis, Dhanaks, Khatik and Mazhabi Sikhs.
The Haryana State Commission for Scheduled Castes has recommended that one-half of the 20% quota reserved for the Scheduled Castes in government jobs will be set aside for candidate from deprived Scheduled Castes comprising 36 castes such as Balmikis, Dhanaks, Khatik and Mazhabi Sikhs.
The commission conducted a data analysis to ascertain the inadequacy of representation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) in public employment because of their backwardness. In its report submitted to the council of ministers, the commission said, “If and only if suitable candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes were not available, then candidate from other Scheduled Castes may be considered for appointment to fill the balance vacant posts.” The other Scheduled Castes include Chamars, and related castes like Jatav, Mochi, Raigars, Ramdasias, and Ravidasisas. “Similarly, one half of the 20% SC quota will be reserved for candidates from other Scheduled Castes. If suitable candidates from other Scheduled Castes are not available, then candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes may be considered for appointment to fill the balance vacant posts. The inter seniority of the candidates from deprived Scheduled Castes and other Scheduled Castes will be as per the common merit list prepared by the recruiting agency. It will not be necessary to fix the roster points separately for each of the blocks within the present roster system,” the report said. The state government has, however, stopped short of implementing the recommendations due to imposition of poll code.
The move is in line with the seven-judge constitution bench judgement of the Supreme Court allowing sub-classification of Scheduled Castes by the state governments. The apex court while allowing sub-classification of SCs had held that the state can sub-classify, inter alia, based on inadequate representation of certain castes. However, the apex court said the state must establish that the inadequacy of representation of a caste/group is because of its backwardness and must collect data on the inadequacy of representation in the services of the state because it is used as an indicator of backwardness.
The commission in its report said that as a result of contemporaneous study conducted by it to assess the representation of deprived Scheduled Castes in government services, the commission has come to the conclusion that the deprived Scheduled Castes were not adequately represented (39.70%) in the state government services whereas other Scheduled Castes were represented more than adequately (60.30%) in the state’s government services in comparison to their proportion of their population in the SC category in Haryana.
The commission said that it has clearly found that the reservations for SCs in Groups A, B and C jobs were skewed towards castes in other Scheduled Castes and reservations for SCs in Group D is skewed towards the deprived Scheduled Castes. “Group D has jobs related to sanitation and scavenging which are ascriptive (by birth) in nature and are mostly taken up by the castes included in deprived Scheduled Castes, especially the Balmikis. This needs to be broken to remove the ascription of occupation to birth,” the commission said.
