OBC reservations put Left Front govt in fix

AGARTALA, January 27: The ruling Left Front government is in a fix over the growing demand for reservations for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Tripura. In the monsoon session of the Assembly last year, the state government had said efforts would be made to hold discussions with the attorney-general in Delhi to take a final decision on the issue. But despite two successive meetings held by education minister Anil Sarkar, who is also in charge of Scheduled Caste affairs, the all-party team to be sent to Delhi could not be constituted in the absence of leader of the Opposition Jawahar Saha. The limit for reservations in the state has remained frozen at 47 per cent for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, physically handicapped and ex-servicemen. Till July last year, the state government had made the plea that according to the Supreme Court judgment in the celebrated Indra Kumar Sawhney versus Union of India cases on November 16, 1992, reservation benefits in a state could not be taken beyond the 50-per cent limit. But Congress MLA and OBC leader Ratan Lal Nath raised the issue in the Assembly and pointed out that the 50-per cent limit was not a mandatory ceiling and the judgment clearly spelt out that in exceptional circumstances, like remoteness of a state from the heartland and state of backwardness, more than 50 per cent reservation could be granted. Nath had also pointed out in the course of a short notice discussion that the Tamil Nadu government had enforced 69 per cent reservation. Apart from this, Justice P.K. Shyamsundar, the then chairman of the National Commission for Other Backward Classes, had written to chief minister Manik Sarkar on July 20, 1999, pointing out the fallacy in the stand of the state government and stressing the need for extending reservation benefits to OBCs in Tripura beyond the overall limit of 50 per cent. Replying to the discussion, education minister Anil Sarkar, who was officiating as leader of the House in the absence of chief minister Manik Sarkar, assured the House that the government was sympathetic to the cause of the OBC communities and would take positive action. Nath said Sarkar had held two successive rounds of discussions over the issue for constituting an all-party team which would go to Delhi to seek the opinion of the attorney-general. But the team could not be constituted allegedly because of the ambivalent stand adopted by leader of the Opposition Jawahar Saha. Nath said efforts were still on to send the team and he was sure the attorney-general would give the green signal to extend reservation benefits to OBCs beyond the 50-per cent limit.