Reservations should continue, says Kejriwal

Panaji:Reacting to the statement by a senior RSS functionary that reservations should be reviewed, the AAP today said the reservations must continue.

“RSS has announced that reservations should be eliminated. You cannot stop reservations till the situation of scheduled castes or scheduled tribes improves,” AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said during a corner meeting in Shiroda Assembly constituency of Goa today.

“We (the society) never gave STs and SCs equal status. I feel the statement by RSS is wrong and we are against their statement. The reservations cannot be withdrawn till their (SC-ST) situation improves,” he added.

RSS leader Manmohan Vaidya had said yesterday that even Dr B R Ambedkar was not in favour of perpetual continuance of reservations, and the policy in this regard should be reviewed.

Kejriwal alleged that the tribal communities in Goa were facing injustice and the BJP government did not fill several job vacancies in the STs category. “The government is not interested. We will fill all those vacancies. The funds meant for STs are diverted. We will ensure that the funds allotted to STs would go for their welfare,” he said.

The scheduled tribes wanted a seat reserved for them in the Assembly and AAP will fulfil this demand, he assured.