Former Union Minister Srikant Kumar Jena in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday requested him to immediately implement the Mandal Commission recommendations.
Jena stated, “The State Government after a delay of 25 long years decided to form an OBC Commission. This displays your ‘sincerity’ towards the development and rights of 54 per cent people of the State!”
Jena urged the Chief Minister to immediately implement 27-per cent reservation for OBCs in the education and job sector. Besides, he asked the Chief Minister to ensure 38.5-per cent reservations for Dalit and Adivasi students in the higher education (medical, engineering) sector.
Due to non-grant of reservation for these classes, while 10,000 OBC students have been deprived of becoming doctors, another 20,000 have been deprived of becoming engineers, he claimed.
Recently, the Supreme Court in a judgement said, “Reservation is not a fundamental right.”If the States want, they can give reservation or they won’t. Jena asked Patnaik to make his and his party’s stand clear on the issue