Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday pitched for caste-based job quota in the private sector and said government-run enterprises are being privatized.
Talking to reporters in Raipur, the Republican Party of India (A) president, who is aligned with the BJP, hailed the Narendra Modi government's decision to include caste enumeration in the upcoming population census, calling it a "historic" move.
To a query on reservation for underprivileged and backward communities in the private sector, the minister noted he had been demanding such a measure since a long time. "It has been our long-standing demand.
"Ram Vilas Paswan (former Union minister and Dalit leader from Bihar), Udit Raj (Congress leader who was earlier in BJP), and myself had demanded that reservation be given in the private sector," Athawale emphasised.
"Now government enterprises are being privatized. Balco company in Chhattisgarh was also privatised. There is no reservation in the private sector. We are giving reservation to Scheduled Castes/Tribes, OBC and economically weaker sections (in government jobs). Though I am in the government, my party's demand is that quota be implemented in the private sector as well," he said.
Asked about the caste enumeration decision, Athawale noted such an exercise was never undertaken during the long Congress rule. -- PTI
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