Calcutta, July 31: Mamata Banerjee today announced a bill for government job quotas for Muslims and said the 10 per cent quota the Left had announced for Other Backward Classes in the community would be scrapped.
The chief minister said an expert committee would be formed to determine the beneficiaries among the Muslims and the quantum of reservation for the community. The guidelines for the bill will be drawn up based on the recommendations of the panel before it is placed in the Assembly.
“We will place a bill regarding reservation for the Muslims, plugging all the loopholes so that it cannot be challenged in court. I am not an expert on backward classes. We will take the opinion of experts. The previous government had not consulted any expert. A defective bill is not going to be of any help,” Mamata said.
Former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had in February 2010 announced the OBC quota for Muslims, acting on the recommendations of the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission.
Mamata said the benefits of the reservation “didn’t reach the Muslims” as the governor hadn’t signed the notification. “They (the Left government) introduced the quota with an eye on the elections,” she said at a programme organised by the West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation at Netaji Indoor Stadium to hand over scholarships and loans to minorities.
The new bill will be placed in the Assembly in three months, she added. Till it becomes an act, status quo will be maintained on the 10 per cent quota. The chief minister also announced a raft of packages for Muslims including housing, health and education schemes.
Sachar focus
Rajinder Sachar today met Mamata and told her to focus on better health care, education and social security for the Muslims in Bengal and create job opportunities for them.
——Agencies