The Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Ramdas Athawale has advocated raising the bar of 50 percent for reservation in Government jobs so that poor of upper castes also get the benefit of reservations. He said that 25 percent of jobs should be reserved for candidates of upper castes. The Union Minister was in Dehradun on Tuesday to review the progress of various schemes of his department in the State. Addressing newsmen, Athawale said that he has put up a proposal before the Prime Minister to make a law for providing reservation to the poor among the upper castes. On the Supreme Court (SC) holding reservations in promotion invalid, the minister said that the Government is planning to bring in a law so that people of reserved category continue to get the benefit of reservations in promotions.
Sounding concerned on recent murder of a Dalit youth in Rajkot Athawale strongly advocated for bringing a Nirbhaya-like law under which a provision of death penalty should be made for the murders of dalits. He informed that a total of 47000 cases of atrocity on dalits have been registered in the country in year 2017-18. The Minister said that the government would do the needful to provide protection to Atrocities act. He said that the cases of Dalit atrocities should be looked from a social angle and the political parties should refrain from any politics on the issue.
Athawale who is the leader of Republican Party of India (RPI) said that Mayawati should support Narendra Modi as he is very strong leader and has a clear vision for development. He opined that the B S Yeddyurappa would have proved his majority on the floor of Karnataka assembly if some more time was given to him. Taking pot-shots on Congress President Rahul Gandhi who recently expressed his willingness to become the PM, the RPI leader claimed that the Modi magic has not waned in the country and for next 15 more years Narendra Modi would remain PM of India. In response to a question, Athawale said that the rising prices if diesel and petrol should be brought under control and said that he would raise the issue in the meeting of NDA coordination committee.