Athawale pitches for reservation for eco disadvantaged

Pitching for reservation for the economically disadvantaged, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale tonight said those having annual income under Rs 6 lakh should also be given benefits of reservation.
"Of the 50 per cent general seat, 25 per cent can be given to the category of those who are economically disadvantaged. To end both social and economic inequality such reservation is necessary apart from the existing reservation for SC, ST and OBC people," the Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment told a press meet here.
"Not everyone is an 'Amir' (rich man) in this society. I had told the NDA meeting on April 10 which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Parliament can bring legislation in this regard. If Parliament can frame laws and Constitution can be amended, there would not be any legal problem," Athwale, founding leader of Republican Party of India, said.

He said people of higher caste leaving in economic disparity face problems in getting admission to MBA, IIM and medical colleges due to prohibitive cost.
Turning to the condition of dalits and other backward caste in West Bengal, the minister complimented the state for having only 46 cases of atrocity as compared to the national average of 45,000, in 2016-17.
Observing that the evil of casteism was lower in West Bengal, he said there had been 1034 cases of intercaste marriage here.

Athawale, however, said the incentive of inter-caste marriage here should be raised from Rs 30,000 to Rs 3 lakh and the district which would record the highest number of intercaste marriages should be given Rs 25 crore as reward.

He said the government wanted to scrap manual scavenging at any cost from the country and so special skill training is being imparted to the children of this community to enable them to take-up some other profession in future.
Commending the state in this regard, the minister said only 98 people are reported to be still engaged in this profession in West Bengal which is very low by any counts.
To a question about Trinamool Congress accusing BJP of trying to polarise people in the name of religion, he said "BJP is not anti-minority, BJP is not anti-Muslim."
"The only thing BJP asserts is that there should be no forcible conversion. In UP they won the assembly polls as BJP believes in taking everybody along the path of development," the minister said.