TEAM HERALD
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It has been taken clearly keeping an eye on the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections next month to send out a message in particular to the SC voters of BSP supremo and chief minister Mayawati that it is only the Congress-led UPA government that always remembers their cause.
Mayawati, however, may puncture the attempt questioning why the backlog of vacancies was allowed to continue despite the Supreme Court directive that led to a special recruitment drive in 2008 but without much relief to the SC candidates.
This is the second major decision to woo the UP voters, the first being the Muslims’ reservation in Government jobs and higher education by carving out 4.5 per cent quota for them out of 27 per cent reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). Of course, that did not attract the poll code of conduct since it was decided before the elections were announced.
The Cabinet took the decision to mount a fresh drive in a fortnight for recruitment of SCs and STs against the vacant posts on the basis of a note by the Ministry of Personnel that only 26,472 vacancies could be filled up against the total backlog of 76,137 despite over three years of direct recruitment exercise.
