The UP State Commission for Other Backward castes has asked the state government to implement roster system in the government departments so as to ensure justice with the schedule caste and OBCs communities. The Commission in its report to the state government has said serious irregularities are being committed in many departments where recruitments are being made without roster thus hurting the interest and representation of the persons from the reserved categories.
“Caste based reservation cannot be implemented without roster as each sanctioned post in each department is identified as reserved and unreserved. Even after two decades of the implementation of the reservation for the OBCs in the state and over six decades of reservation for the SC/ST in state government most of the departments have not prepared the roster and they continue to make fresh recruitments thus denying due representation to the SC/ST and OBCs and also seniority to the reserved category employees’’, said Dr Deep Singh Pal, Vice chairman of the UP State OBC Commission.
He said the OBCs commission following complaints by the employees has detected such irregularities in several departments like excise, agriculture, revenue and health departments.
“In excise department 22 officers were promoted as deputy excise commission but none among them was from the reserved category as roster was not prepared by the department’’, said Dr Pal. He said not only each post is identified as reserved or unreserved as per roster; seniority list of officers and employees is also drawn as per the roster. `` The Supreme Court may have quashed the reservation in promotion for the schedule caste employees but the no court has barred the state government from fixing the seniority and promoting the officers/ employees as per the roster’’, said Dr Pal. He said he has asked the principal secretary of department personnel to issue reminders to each department to prepare the roster as per the provisions of the `UP Public Services (reservation for Sc, OBCs) Act 1994 and end the anomalies effecting the interests of the reserved category employees.
The Commission sources said the state government has so far not responded on several issued raised by it for the interests of the OBCs. They said the indifference of the state’s bureaucracy towards the UP State backward class’s commission has reduced the panel to a defunct organization. The bureaucracy has stonewalled all the queries by the commission about the representation of theOBCs in state services and their share in myriad development and welfare schemes being implemented by the state government. The OBCs constitute the core vote bank of the ruling Samajwadi party.
Even after over two decades of its existence the Commission, set up in 1993, it has no credible caste wise data about the castes included in the state list of OBCs. In state OBCs list 79 castes have so far been included. The commission is clueless about the implementation of the 27 percent quota for the OBCs in various government departments as recommended by the Mandal commission.
The announcement for the implementation of the Mandal report was made by the then prime minister VP Singh in August 1990. The Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the quota. The apex court later in its landmark judgment in November 1992 upheld the constitutional validity of the 27 percent quota for the OBCs.
The commission in July 2014 had circulated a questionnaire among all district magistrates, principal secretaries and heads of departments/directorates seeking detailed information on the state of the reservation, the share of the different castes listed in state OBC list in the implementation of various welfare and development scheme. The commission has sought detailed information from all the district magistrates. The commission particularly concerned over the lack of representation of the OBCs in state services as per their 27 percent quota had sought the information from the state government. So far there is no response from the government.
“We are waiting for the information, some departments have responded and some are in the process of furnishing the information’’, said Ram Asrey Kushwaha, chairman of the UP State OBCs commission.