Refer teachers' reservation bill to Parliament panel: Oppn

Opposition members in Lok Sabha on Monday demanded that a Bill related to reservation in filling vacant position in central universities be referred to the Standing Committee for a comprehensive review.

Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Bill 2019, which seek to replace an Ordinance issued in March, will help filling about 8,000 existing vacancies in 41 central universities.

The Bill proposes to make university as a unit rather than a department for the purpose of providing reservation for filling teachers' position in central education institutions.

Human Resource Development Minister (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Bill 2019 also has provision of 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Section (EWS).

The government has already approved allocation of Rs 770 crore for reservation of EWS, he said.

While moving the Bill for passage, the Minister said it aims provides for reservation of posts in appointments by direct recruitment of persons belonging to the SC, ST, Socially and Economically Backward Classes and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) to teachers' cadre in certain Central Education Institution.

Participating in the debate, Congress leader Adhir Rajan Chowdhury said his party is not opposed to the contents of the Bill but questioned the urgency of issuing an ordinance days before announcement of Lok Sabha elections.

"I would oppose invocation of ordinance...this kind of arbitrary invocation of ordinance does not augur well for vibrant democracy," Chowdhury said.

He said that the BJP-led government had invoked maximum number of ordinances in the history of Parliamentary democracy in the country.

Chowdhury demanded that the Bill should be referred to the Standing Committee for comprehensive examination.

Observing that reservation in the past was only given to socially and educationally backward sections and never to economically backward classes, A Raja