Ahead of polls, organisation takes up ‘endquota’ campaign

: Samta Andolan Samiti, which campaigns for major changes in caste-based reservation, has offered support to candidates contesting assembly elections from reserved seats in Rajasthan, if they accept the organisation’s objectives.

Of the 200 assembly constituencies in the state, 59 are reserved. The samiti has mooted six proposals against caste-based reservation and called its poll campaign as ‘Mission 59’.

“We have written to 10 national level political parties to include our nationalist issues in their manifesto by giving affidavits,” samiti president Parashar Narayan Sharma told reporters here on Friday.

The samiti calls for ending reservation to the creamy layer in SC/ST category and scrapping of quota in promotion from April 1, 1997. If a candidate fails to get a job owing to quota, he/she should be given compensation — 100 times of the salary fixed for the post. If somebody fails to get an educational post, he/she should get an equivalent post in a private institution and the government should bear the expenses.

The samiti demands that nobody be arrested under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act without investigation.

“Eight candidates from the reserved category have given affidavits in support of our demands; we will support these candidates,” Sharma said. “We will field 59 candidates in the reserved assembly constituencies.” He said, “If any political party agrees to our issues, we will ask the party to give tickets to these candidates. If no party agrees to our issues, then these candidates will contest as independents.”

The samiti has written letters to the BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India, CPI(M), Rashtrawadi Congress Party, Shiv Sena, Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party and Lok Dal. HTC

JAIPUR