Centre ready with ordinance to restore 200-point roster: Paswan

The Centre is ready with an ordinance to restore the 200-point roster system for appointment of teachers in institutions of higher learning, doing away with the 13-point roster that has led to much resentment among the SCs, STs and OBCs, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan claimed Tuesday.

Paswan also said the ordinance would be promulgated soon and the same was delayed on account of injunctions by the Supreme Court, which had restrained the government from coming up with any such measure until the Centre's Special Leave Petition on the matter was decided.

"The apex court came out with its judgement on our SLP challenging the 13-point roster towards the end of January. The government has since been busy with the crisis that has followed the Pulwama terror attack. But the ordinance is ready and it will be promulgated soon," Paswan told reporters here.

The ordinance, whereby the 200-point roster would be restored, would benefit not only the SC, STs and the OBCs but also the economically weaker sections among the unreserved category who have been provided with 10 per cent quota by the Narendra Modi government, Paswan added.

Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), a constituent of the NDA in Bihar besides Paswan's LJP, flayed the opposition parties for calling a nation-wide bandh in protest against the 13-point roster for political ends.

"The Centre had made its stand clear in the Rajya Sabha. Also, our national president Nitish Kumar has spoken to the Union HRD minister on the issue and the latter assured him that an ordinance restoring the 200-point roster would be promulgated within a few days. In such a backdrop, the opposition's support to the 'Bharat bandh' is purely for political ends," JD(U) national general secretary RCP Singh told reporters.

Singh also underscored that the JD(U) had made a strong pitch for restoring the 200-point roster at its national executive meeting here on Monday and accused the previous Congress-led UPA government at the Centre of having done away with quotas in many centres of excellence in the name of running super-specialty courses.