The Samajwadi Party on Monday submitted a memorandum to Governor SC Jamir demanding 27 per cent reservation in all Government and private sector jobs and admissions into all Government-sponsored universities and colleges in the State.
The memorandum urged the Governor to ensure taking steps for inclusion of OBC reservation resolution in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution and to establish a statutory OBC Commission to look into the rights and welfare of the OBCs in the State.The party also demanded that the State Government set up residential skill development centres in each district headquarters for OBC youths to provide skill training for making them employable in the expanding job market.
Though an Act has been legislated with a unanimous resolution in the Odisha legislative Assembly in 2008 for OBC reservation of 27 per cent in employment, the same is now lying with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for its inclusion in the Schedule IX of the Constitution to keep reservation beyond 50 per cent. “Neither the State nor its elected MPs are serious to raise the issue at the Centre to implement it in the State,” said party’s State president Rabi Behera.