SC/BC union gives call for 85th amendment

 Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 28 

Employees belonging to Scheduled Caste/Backward Class category and Lok Ekta Front have given a call for the 85th Constitutional amendment and taking back of the government letter regarding seniority lists released on October 10 last year. Members of the unions said to press for these demands they would hold a protest dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Jalandhar on October 2. 

Speaking to mediapersons at a conference here today, members said the state government was trying to rob the Dalits of their constitutional rights. They termed the October 10, 2014, letter against the reservation policy and demanded that it should be taken back. Front leaders Sarwan Singh Kalyan, Malagar Singh among others said despite a huge backlog of the SC category, employees of this group were not being given jobs.

They said fee of wards of parents, who belonged to low-income group, was not being pardoned and various schemes meant for the poor were also not being released. Notably, the SC/BC Employees Front is against the seniority lists released for employees of the Education Department recently. On the other hand the general and NC Welfare Federations have been holding meetings to advocate for the release of the list. 

 The clash of demands of these two groups over the seniority lists, objections for which have to be filed by the last date, which is September 30, is a major bone of contention that the Education Department will have to decide.