RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on Monday targeted Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his remarks favouring reservation in the private sector, saying it was not a new idea and that the state has seen little private investment. Prasad, however, said his party is not against the idea of reservation in the private sector. Kumar had said earlier in the day said his government favoured reservations in the private sector “in-principle”. “But for (introducing) that Parliament has to take initiative in accordance with provisions of the Constitution,” he had said.
Reacting to Kumar’s remarks, Prasad said his party too favoured quota system in private sector. “We are also in favour of reservations in the private sector, but this is not a new demand. Mayawati had raised similar demands and so had Ram Vilas Paswan”. The RJD supremo, who was speaking on the sidelines of a party function took a dig at the chief minister and said the state had barely seen industrial growth in the past few years, hence the question of reservation in private sector did not hold significance.
“Where is the private sector in the state? Has there been any investment, any factories? Did anyone set up a company here?” Meanwhile, a section of BJP workers today opposed the government’s decision to introduce reservation in outsourced services. The Nitish Kumar cabinet had last week cleared a proposal for reservations in all services currently provided in the state by way of outsourcing. While the BJP leaders were not available for comment, the protesters claimed that such a decision would shrink the employment opportunities for some sections of the society.
Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had said last week that the BJP was “fully in favour of reservation in outsourced services” and that the decision was taken “unanimously by the BJP-JD(U) government”.
