Chandigarh: Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee President Kumari Selja on Saturday said the BJP government and RSS are continuously hatching a well-planned conspiracy to end the reservation system.
BJP-RSS are conspiring to deprive people of reservation benefits in some way or the other, which is being revealed continuously. In the last several years, there have been many such occasions when the anti-reservation mentality of BJP and RSS has been exposed. The government wants to deprive the backward class people of their entitlements, she added.
Selja said that in the latest case, the new notification issued by the Haryana government regarding the creamy layer for reservation of backward classes is misleading and unconstitutional to the Supreme Court. This notification is a copy of the recently-cancelled notification by the Supreme Court, which is a direct contempt of the orders of the apex court.
She said on August 24 this year, the Supreme Court had quashed the notifications issued by the Haryana government regarding the creamy layer criteria as unconstitutional. At the same time, the Supreme Court had also ordered the Haryana government to bring a new notification within three months as per the constitution regarding the decision of the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case and the provisions of the Haryana Backward Classes Reservation Act.
But now, the state government has issued a new notification defining the criteria for identification of creamy layer of backward classes in Haryana, which is an attempt to re-publish the notifications cancelled by the Supreme Court.
According to the new creamy layer norms notification, the annual income from all sources has been fixed at Rs six lakh. This has taken away the right of reservation from children of peons, ‘D’ category soldiers, farmers and skilled workers. It is not only against the law but also different from the norms laid down by the Central government on the guidelines of the Supreme Court judgment in the Indra Sawhney case, according to which the salary of socially backward employees and agricultural income of farmers are not included in the annual income.
Selja said the state government followed the creamy layer norms of the Central government from 1995 to 2016, but the BJP government brought new notifications in 2016 regarding the new creamy layer criterion to divide the backward classes and deny the benefits of reservation to the backward classes, which is an attempt to snatch the rights of the backward classes.
She said the Central government is considering those as financially weak, who have an annual income of less than Rs eight lakh, but in Haryana, the gross annual income for backward classes has been fixed at only Rs six lakh.
Further, under this new notification, the children of existing ‘A’ and ‘B’ category officers have been deprived of the right of reservation, whereas according to the notification of the Central government, only directly appointed ‘A’ category officers or officers promoted before the age of 40 years have been considered in the creamy layer.
The HPCC said these conspiracies of government cannot be tolerated at any cost. According to the orders laid down by the Supreme Court in the Indra Sawhney case and as per the norms set by the Center government, the backward classes of Haryana should be given the benefit of reservation, she added.
