Rajnath says committed to quota in varsity jobs

New Delhi, July 18 : Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday said the government was committed to reservation for weaker sections and that no individual or organization can take it away.

Rajnath was responding to concerns of Samajwadi Party members in the Lok Sabha over a UGC circular on teaching vacancies for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Sections (OBCs). 

Singh said the government had filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on the issue. 

He said Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javedakar would give a detailed reply on the matter.

"No one can snatch these (reservation) provisions. No institution can take them away," he said.

Raising the issue, Samajwadi Party member Dharmendra Yadav said the UGC had issued the circular in March. He said the number of vacancies for the reserved sections had substantially come down in the faculty posts advertised by universities after the circular was issued.

The circular mentioned that the numbers of the reserved faculty posts across universities will be calculated department-wise and not based on the aggregate vacant posts in a university.

The UGC order was based on an Allahabad High Court directive in April 2017 in a case about teachers' recruitment at Banaras Hindu University.