Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said reservations are not a means to uplift the status of minorities. Throughout the country,there are debates on how to improve the condition of minorities and many see reservations as a solution. I dont feel the same,the CM said. Whether there will be reservations for minority is a question of law and Constitution but our experience shows they cannot be any solution for the minorities, he said. Citing the example of SCs and STs,the chief minister said Bhimrao Ambedkar advocated reservations only for 10 years but after 60 years,only a few from these communities have benefited. Bhattacharjee said it is imperative to give equal opportunity to the minorities which his Left Front government has been doing. The CM was speaking at a function where 200 certificates for vocational education 100 for secretarial practice for Muslim girls and 100 for hardware for Muslim boys were awarded. Former CPM parliamentarian MD Selim,who was also present,said newspapers are ill-informed or misinformed when they say efforts of Left Front government for the uplift of minorities amount to appeasement. It is a constitutional mandate for the government to work for the poor and the backward. Moreover,the situation of minorities here is better than the rest of the country, said Selim. Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharjee said while male members of the community are at par with the rest of the country in employability (59 per cent in country and 56 per cent in West Bengal),the females are lagging behind (7 per cent in Bengal as compared to 14 per cent in the country).
