CHANDIGARH: It’s been more than a year and a half since (In April 2018 while addressing a gathering in Ludhiana) asserting his government’s commitment to implementing the 85th amendment to the Constitution for the benefit of the Dalit community, Capt. Amrinder Singh and his government has miserably failed to fulfil the aspirations of the Scheduled Castes community. Article 335 categorically says that “claims” of SC/STs to posts in Centre and the States ‘shall’ be taken into consideration.
Criticizing the lack of urgency shown by successive state governments since 2001 and more recently the Capt. Amrinder Singh led Congress government for not implementing ‘reservation in promotion’, Paramjit Singh Kainth, President, National Scheduled Castes Alliance, voiced his discontent in the matter. Kainth said, “The whole issue regarding 85th amendment is boiling due to the non-implementation of ‘reservation in promotions’ by the Punjab government in Punjab, which was allowed through the 85th Amendment Act 2001 and Article 16 4(A) thereby, empowering the government to make special provisions for the Scheduled castes community in such matters. Despite repeated poll promises, the state government has failed to deliver on this promise.”
Blaming the Congress government in Punjab of playing dirty politics in matters related to the SC community, Kainth said, “The state government has had a dismal record of protecting rights of SC people in the recent past and the matter of ‘reservation in promotion’ which is dear to the lives of the SC community has been intentionally delayed by the government, running away from their responsibility by blaming the Central government. It has been more than 18 years since the act was passed and has been upheld by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India on various occasions, most recently in the M. Nagaraj case.”
Kainth alleged that, “The Chief Minister seems to be helpless in front of the ‘Anti-Scheduled Castes’ lobby in the Vidhan Sabha and elsewhere, trying to appease while the development and progress of a whole community is on the stake. Instead of blaming others, the government should act readily on the issue and the 34 MLA’s belonging to the Scheduled Castes community in the Vidhan Sabha should have a deep introspection on whether the interests of the community stand first or their own personal ambitions.”