Supreme Court today backed a 10 per cent quota in jobs and education for the poor or EWS (Economically Weaker Sections), introduced just before the 2019 general elections. Gujarat Congress welcomes this move by the Supreme Court. The quota is not discriminatory and does not alter the basic structure of the constitution, a Supreme Court constitution bench said in a majority judgement.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee President Jagdish Thakor said that the Congress party welcomes the Supreme Court’s judgement on economic reservation. “If recruitment is done in a timely and transparent manner in various departments of the government, poor and deprived citizens will get the benefit of economic reservation. In the BJP government people do not get government jobs, if they don’t get jobs then how will they get this economic benefit? Even the recruitment process is not transparent and so, this process needs to be corrected to let people reap its benefits.”
The EWS quota was introduced through the 103rd constitutional amendment and cleared in January 2019 by the Centre soon after the BJP lost the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh elections. It was instantly challenged in the Supreme Court.
“BJP has been appointing people only on contract basis. Some people are also outsourced in the system. Under BJP’s rule
airports, ports, hospitals, railways and other government organisations are either privatised or recruitment takes place only on contract basis.” adds Thakor.
Meanwhile, the ruling BJP praised the landmark decision, which comes ahead of key polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, and called it a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his “mission” to provide social justice to the country’s poor.
