In view of the strike called by the General-OBC employees starting on Monday regarding the issue of reservation in promotion, the members of Uttarakhand SC-ST Employees Federation said that the State Government need not be concerned due to the strike as the SC-ST employees will work hard day and night to make sure everything goes smoothly.
In a press conference held on Sunday, the office bearers of the federation said that it is unethical of the general-OBC employees to propose the strike from March 2 to cause hindrance in the Budget session of Vidhan Sabha beginning in Gairsain from March 3.
According to the regional head of the federation, Karam Ram, “The call for strike just before the Budget session is a very wrong and selfish decision of the general-OBC employees.
The Budget session is very important for the people and employees of the State but the announcement of the strike shows that they just like to think of themselves rather than seeing the bigger picture.
It appears that the stubbornness and audacity of these members is probably due to the influence of some political party.” He opined that the statement of one of the General -OBC employees’ leaders Deepak Joshi that Government should appoint a nodal officer for the budget session from SC-ST employees is quite insulting to the people of the federation as well as to the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
According to him, strict action must be taken against Joshi and his organisation by the government. However, he said that if the Government will ask them to do any job, the federation members will cooperate and work hard.
About reservation in promotion not being a fundamental right, Ram said, “As per Article 16 4(A) of Indian constitution, it is the fundamental right of SC-ST employees to get a reservation in the promotions. If the Government denies this to be a fundamental right, they will have to make it clear that that reject the Constitution of India too.”
According to the federation members, as long as the discrimination against the people belonging to SC-ST is prevalent in the State, the reservation will be relevant too. In the conference, the federation also proposed to increase the job reservation for OBCs from 14 per cent to 27 per cent besides the reservation in promotion.