Darjeeling, June 12: The Nepali
Scheduled Caste community has alleged that the GTA Sabha didn’t follow
constitutional norms of reservation in the recent recruitment of primary
school teachers in the hills, denying jobs to 47 members of the
community.
The working
president of the All India Nepali Scheduled Caste Association, Hem
Baraily, said the GTA had overlooked the mandatory reservation of 22 per
cent for the community while appointing 575 primary school teachers
recently.
“While the SC
community is entitled to 22 per cent reservation, the quota for the
Scheduled Tribe community and Other Backward Classes stands at 6 per
cent and 27 per cent, respectively,” said Baraily.
According to the
association, of the 575 appointments made by the GTA, 127 should have
been from among the Scheduled Caste members. “Even though the GTA has
not yet given us the list of candidates appointed for the posts, we have
learnt from our sources that only 80 applicants from our community have
been given jobs. This means 47 members of our community have been
denied jobs,” said Baraily. .
The community,
which consists of 9.32 per cent of the hill population, was among the
first to openly support the Morcha when it was formed in October 2007.
G.N. Lamjel, the
general secretary of the association, said: “A meeting of the
association was held in Darjeeling on Sunday and representatives of our
community expressed strong resentment against the Morcha for ignoring
the reservation for the Scheduled Caste community.”
The meeting, held
at the Biswakarma Samaj Bhavan in Darjeeling, was chaired by R. Thatal,
the president of the association. Baraily and representatives of
different units from across the hills were present at the meeting.
The SC leaders
said the community members would not allow the infringement of their
constitutional rights. “We are only demanding the right that has been
enshrined in the Constitution and to ensure that our community is
protected, we will explore all possible options that are available to
us. To start with, we will soon take up the matter with the National
Commission on Schedule Caste,” said Baraily.
When it comes to
the reservation, the SC community is also aggrieved that of the 45 GTA
seats to which elections are held, not a single one is reserved for the
SC and ST.
“We raised the
issue with the Morcha and we also told chief minister Mamata Banerjee
that no seats were reserved for the SC and ST community in the elections
to the GTA. The chief minister assured us that she would look into the
matter, but nothing much has happened,” said Baraily.
Seats are reserved for the SC and ST communities in the assemblies and Parliament.
The SC association
had supported the Morcha after its birth in 2007 as the Sixth Schedule
demand raised by GNLF leader Subash Ghisingh did not have any provision
for reserving seats for the SC community. However, there was a provision
for seat reservation for the ST community under the Sixth Schedule.
The Morcha has
given tickets to the SC and ST community members in the GTA polls. If a
seat is reserved for a particular community, only members from the same
can contest the polls.
Asked about the SC
community’s charge of not complying with the reservation in the
recruitment of the primary school teachers, Roshan Giri, the executive
Sabha member in charge of primary education, said: “As far as I know,
the roster system has been maintained.”
The Telegraph
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