Chandigarh: In an appeal to the Congress government headed by Captain Amrinder Singh, the National Scheduled Castes Alliance asked the govt to restrain from nepotism, favourism, indiscriminate appointment of people from the same community for various Constitutional posts in the State. NSCA also requested the government to fulfil the vacant seats in various constitutional offices according the proportion of representation of a community in the total population, so as to provide equal representation to all the communities and foster a feeling of togetherness and collective harmony instead of feelings of ignorance and malicious intent to sideline the interests of the minority.
Paramjit Singh Kainth, president of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance said “this demand is not just specifically for the Scheduled Castes community but for all sections of the society including backward classes and other religious minorities. At present, the current rosters in the various Constitutional offices like Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) and Punjab State Information Commission (PSIC) is not representative of the various communities and religious minorities in the vibrant state of Punjab. It is demand that the interests of the people should not be compromised under any circumstance to favor any one single community.”
Kainth further elucidated “There has been a recent trend all over the country where members for the Constitutional offices have been increased in totality to accommodate the demands of various communities accordingly. In Punjab, we have the largest population of Scheduled Castes community in the country and accordingly, as a representative of the community we feel like we have been left out of the contention for the posts. The representation is not indicative of the demographics of the State. There are total 11 posts in the PPSC and out of which 6 are to be filled due to retirement of the previous members, also in the PSIC, there are in total 9 members out of which 2 are to be nominated again by the State government. National Scheduled Castes Alliance demands that the Congress government should ponder seriously over the fact that there is disproportionate representation in these offices and it should initiate a transparent, collective and heterogeneous approach in nominating the future members.”