Summary:
Patna, Sep 22 (PTI) Rashtriya Janata Dal president Lalu Prasad on Wednesday reiterated the demand for caste census and favoured “breaking” the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations if the population of SCs, STs and OBCs was found to be more than half of the total.Prasad, who has been convalescing in Delhi after his release from jail earlier this year, made the remarks while addressing a training camp of his party workers organised here to which he got connected online.“I was the first one to raise the demand for caste census.
I had made the demand on the floor of the Parliament,” said the multiple-term former MP and the railway minister in the UPA-1 government.The former Bihar chief minister, who has ended up spending a long time behind bars following his conviction in fodder scam cases, said “my demand is for the welfare of all, SCs and STs included.
Quotas have been decided taking into account a census conducted before Independence.
We must have a fresh estimate of the population of different social segments”.“The existing quotas have been insufficient.
And even these are rarely filled, resulting in huge backlogs.
Let there be a fresh caste census and all get quotas in proportion to their population.