After Ram Vilas Paswan, Nitish Kumar bats for reservation in private sector

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday stressed on increasing the reservation quota in jobs beyond 50 per cent in view of the increasing population of Schedule Castes and also advocated extending it to the private sector "The order of the Supreme Court on (50 per cent ceiling) reservation is accepted... but there should be discussion on reservation issue... the laid down quota should be increased," Kumar said addressing a function in which he was honoured with K Veeramani award for 2015."If population of SC is increasing the quota of reservation should also increase like in Tamil Nadu where it is 69 per cent," he said.The laws are made taking into account the prevailing environment at the time."But, it changes later on as per the need," he said and cited example of the Bihar government enacting a new liquor law replacing the existing one of 1915."Likewise, the limit of reservation could be increased above 50 per cent through an amendment in Constitution," said Kumar, who hails from OBC caste.Kumar, a senior JD(U) leader, also made a strong case for extending reservation in private sector too."In today's time of economic liberalisation if reservation is not provided in private sector then it would be playing a joke with the concept of social justice," he said to drive home the point.Kumar said as member of 14th Lok Sabha he had raised the issue of providing reservation to dalit muslims. "I had said that SC/ST could be of any religion. Subsequently, dalit Buddhist and dalit Sikh got benefits of reservation but dalit muslims and dalit Christians could not get it," he said.International Periyar society chose Kumar for 2015 K Veeramani award. CPI Secretary D Raja was present at the function.