End practice of quota seats becoming ‘un-reserved’, check growing ‘aakrosh’: Union MoS to Yogi

Union Minister of State and Apna Dal (Soneylal) chief Anupriya Patel has written a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urging him to check posts reserved for OBCs and SC/STs remaining unfilled and ending up going to the general category.

In the letter, Patel, whose party has a base among OBC Kurmis in UP, claimed a practice prevalent in interview-based recruitments of candidates from these categories being rejected for posts on the ground of “not found suitable”. This was leading to “aakrosh (anger)” among the candidates, she said.

In the letter dated June 27, Patel said she had been contacted repeatedly by candidates belonging to OBC and SC/ST categories with the complaint that in the competitive exams held by the state involving recruitment based solely on interviews, they were often declared “Not Found Suitable”. As a result, “inn vargon se aane wale kisi bhi abhyarthi ka chayan nahin kiya jaata (no candidate from these categories is selected)”.

The Union MoS added that after this process was repeated many times, “ant mein… aarakshit uprokt sanddarbhit padon ko anarakshit ghoshit kar diya jata hai (finally, the reserved posts are declared un-reserved)”.

Patel said that there should be “tatkaal rok (immediate stop)” to this happening, so that “inn vargon se aane wale abyrathiyon se utpann ho rahe aakrosh (the rising anger among the candidates of these categories)” can be checked.

She also demanded that necessary steps be taken to make it “anivarya (mandatory)” that such reserved posts go only to the categories for which these are meant, “chaahe is ke liye jitni bhi baar niyukti prakriya karni padhe (no matter how many times recruitment has to be carried out for this)".

Urging Adityanath to take “effective” steps to ensure this, Patel said that candidates belonging to these deprived categories qualified for the interview process only after clearing the minimum eligibility on their own capability, and hence repeatedly declaring them “not found suitable” was not understandable.

Apna Dal (S) spokesperson Rajesh Srivastava told The Indian Express: "Anupriya ji is a leader of the Dalits, deprived and Backward sections, and the party's ideology is to ensure that these sections get their due rights provided as per the Constitution. Complaints were continuously coming from candidates of these categories that they were not getting due benefits of reservation in the process conducted by recruitment agencies. Through this letter, the party president has drawn attention of the UP government to this matter with a request to remove any discrepancies -- at any level-- to ensure that the candidates get their rights."

Patel’s letter to CM Adityanath comes days after the shocking setback to the BJP in UP in the recent Lok Sabha elections, with distress among youths over unemployment and apprehension among SCs/STs and OBCs over losing reservation benefits identified as among the prime reasons for the voter anger with the ruling party.

The Apna Dal (S) is part of the BJP-led governments both in the Centre and UP. Patel is Union MoS, Health and Family Welfare, and Chemicals and Fertilizers. She wrote the letter in the capacity of Apna Dal (S) national president.

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