New Delhi, Jan 9 (UNI) The members of the Rajya Sabha, including Congress and other Opposition parties , on Wednesday lauded the Bill to provide 10 percent reservation to the economically weaker sections .
Initiating the debate on this the Constitution (124 th amendment) Bill , 2019, BJP member Prabhat Jha said that no governments in the past had dared to introduce this bill through the constitution amendment and he exhorted the house to pass the Bill with voice vote as it was passed in the Lok Sabha.
He said that every party has made the promise to provide reservation to economically weaker sections in their poll manifesto and this is only the Narendra Modi Government that has taken care of this promise of most of the political parties including Congress.
'Therefore, this should be considered as the “sense of the House” and be passed,'Jha said.
He also said that some political parties are misinformed and saying this amendment Bill has to be passed by the state assemblies and then only this will come in to effect.
'This is false and our Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday clarified in the lower House that this Bill once passed, does not need the concurrence of the state assemblies,'he said.
Taking the debate forward, Mr Jha further said that as per the initial provision of the Bill , the families below annual income of eight lakh and five acres of arable land, will be entitled and thus, covering the 90 percent of the population of the upper castes and for the welfare of the people.
'We all should pass this bill with voice vote,'he said.
Deputy leader of Congress party Anand Shama, participating in the debate, said that the Minister while tabling the Bill in the House said that those weaker sections of the upper castes should be given reservation on economic ground.
He said that he is not opposing the Bill but wanted to know the urgency in which the Government brought this bill after four years and seven months?
“ it is just because you lost three states election last month and that compelled you to bring this legislation to the Parliament”, he said.
Quoting the poll slogan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 that his government would provide two crore job opportunities in each year, Mr Sharma hit at the treasury bench that they were are now sacred of facing people because in 2018 , 11 million jobs have been lost.
“ The jobs in the Public Sector are shrinking and the private sector is devastated by the demonetization and bad and faulty implementation of the GST. You were expected to keep the economic growth on the right track which could have generated a large volume of jobs and other employment opportunities”, he said
He also said that before coming to the House he inquired from some economists and experts who said that by giving this 10 percent reservation it will take at leasy 800 years to fructify the benefits of this reservation with the present job scenario.
Mr Sharma also said that the if the Government was so serious to give relief to upper caste weaker sections, they should have consulted with political parties and with the people first but you bring this Bill.
“This bill is brought in the Parliament in haste and at the time when the Government is in departure launge”, Mr Sharma commented.
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