Insaf Morcha's Statement, 18 Nov., 1999

'Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav, MP, President of Samajwadi Party, has demanded an increase in the reservation for OBC's in public employment from 27% to 54% In principle, the Insaf Morcha supports the demand for relating the OBC quota to its population as in the case of the SC's and the ST's, but considers Shri Yadav's approach to be piece meal and fragmented.

Keeping in view the social and political developments that have occurred since the Mandal Commission submitted its report in 1980, the Insaf Morcha emphasizes the need for a comprehensive Scheme of Reservation with the following essential elements :-

1. Every self-conscious and identifiable social group, who know the basis for its identity, which seeks reservation, should be given a quota based in its population and its level of backwardness relative to the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes, as determined by a competent authority based on uniform nationally accepted parameters.

2.Some social groups more or less at the same level of backwardness be permitted to form a single category for purposes of reservation.

3. There should be no fixed or arbitrary limit to the total reservation quota for a category or for all categories taken together i.e. for a State or for the Union.

4. A social group whose population constitutes at least 1% of the State or the Union, as the case may be, may opt for a separate quota for itself. Smaller social groups may aggregate to form a single group or attach themselves to bigger social groups of their choice.

The Insaf Morcha requests Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav and other leaders of the Backward Classes Movement to agitate for the formulation and acceptance of a Comprehensive Scheme of Reservation and for Caste Census and for extension of reservation to the representation in legislatures, higher and professional education, flow of development and welfare benefit and bank credit."