New Delhi: A Parliamentary panel has pulled
up the Government for withdrawing the Scheduled Caste,
Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class Bill 2004 and asked
it to come up with a fresh Bill on the subject.
The committee on the welfare of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, which submitted its report `Situation
arising out of the employment secured on the basis of false
caste certificates` to the Lok Sabha today, has sought to know
from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
the reasons under which the Bill was withdrawn.
In its observations, the panel has said, "The committee
has urged the government to withdraw the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes Bill 2008, which replaced the earlier 2004
Bill and passed in Rajya Sabha in December 2008 without
discussion, keeping in view the anti-reservation provisions
incorporated therein.
"The committee has recommended that the government should
come forward with a fresh Bill on the subject after consulting
the committee, National Commission for Scheduled Castes and
Commission for STs."
In another observation regarding evolving a mechanism to
monitor the extent of benefits reaching the SC/ST population,
it said, "The ministry being the nodal ministry, it should not
limit their responsibility only up to formulation of
reservation policy at the Central level.
"But it should obtain information on the progress made in
the implementation of reservation policy in states in order to
get a reality check in the matter throughout the country."
The panel has also recommended the ministry to instruct
all government offices to bridge the time gap between the
occurrence of vacancies and filling them up by forward
planning so that all the vacancies are filled up as soon as
they became due.
Further, the committee has said while undertaking special
recruitment drives, it should be strictly ensured that only
the genuine SC and ST candidates are recruited.
PTI
