Caste based reservations in jobs is a funny business: Satbir Singh Bedi
January 20, 2009
According to a news report in the Times of India dated the 19th Jan., 2009, in Orissa, which was hit by a wave of communal violence in the recent months, a family claims to have found the perfect route to peace and harmony. Chiranjeevi Beriha’s family in Sonepur has three members who belong to three different castes, only the ‘ethnic harmony’ is a smoke screen to garner benefits from the State.
Beriha, a Congress activist, belongs to OBC. His elder son Sankarshan has Scheduled Tribe tag and his younger son Tribrikam is a Scheduled Caste member.
According to the Zilla Adivasi Kalyan Sangha, which has blown the family’s cover, Sankarshan became a government teacher after allegedly obtaining a fake ST caste certificate. Tribrikam is suspected to have obtained a fake SC certificate to get a ‘sikshya sahayak (teaching assistant) job.
Sangha sources said Chiranjeevi Beriha belongs to Odia, a caste listed on the OBC list. This is mentioned in his voter identity card and land documents. School documents of Sankarshan shows he too belongs to Odia caste. But while taking admission in the Secondary Training School in Sonepur, he submitted a fake certificate showing himself as Sahara tribe. Sankarshan is head master of a primary school in Saharapali village in Sonepur district.
Tribrikam too acquired a fake caste certificate in 1991 showing himself as Keuta caste (fisherman community) which is listed under the SC list. He works at San Jhinki primary school near Sonepur.
The Sangha has objected to a single family availing the benefits of SC and ST. Its president Jogendra Bhoi said it is a ¶mockery of the government’s reservation policy¶ to uplift the living standards and social status of SCs and STs. ¶What is the use of a quota system if non-SCs and non-STs enjoy benefits meant for SCs and STs? It is really sad that members of the same family have got government jobs by showing fake caste certificates,¶ Bhoi said.
It is clear from the above report that Government and the political parties are fooling the people all the time with their talk of uplifting of the poor when their own activists bluff the Govt. by submitting fake certificates. It is not known how many fake certificates have been issued by Govt. officers/MLAs/MPs and how many people belonging to OBCs and so called upper castes are making use of it? In my opinion, there must be a mafia which is carrying on such business of issuing the fake caste certificates in collusion with the Government servants/MLAs/MPs etc. It would be best for everyone if the reservations on caste basis are abolished once for all so that nobody is tempted to go in for a fake caste certificate and the people indulging in fooling the Govt. and the members of the upper castes by issuing them fake certificates are denied this lucrative illegal business. In this connection, it is seen that wherever is quota system introduced, there is bound to be corruption, whether it is caste reservations or licensing system or permit system. Hence this caste reservations quota system should be done away with.
