Dera Bassi, April 17: Aam Aadmi Party government has created history by giving reservation to Scheduled Caste community in Advocate General's office. These views were expressed by Dera Bassi MLA Kuljit Singh Randhawa while talking to media here today.
He said that Aam Aadmi Party has always raised its voice for the rights of people of all sections, which the people of Punjab know very well. He said that the people of Punjab have given a big mandate to Aam Aadmi Party by following the thinking of Chief Minister Punjab S. Bhagat Singh Mann.
MLA Randhawa said that Punjab government has paid tribute to those great personalities by putting up the pictures of Shaheed-e-Azam S. Bhagat Singh and Baba Saheb Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar ji, from whom our future generations will always take guidance. The MLA said that it has been 75 years since the country got independence, but there was no reservation for SC/ST for the recruitment of advocate or government lawyer of any state in all the High Courts of the country.
He said that the previous governments calling themselves the well-wishers of the backward classes never raised their voice in their favor, they have been using the SC community only to get votes. He said that the Aam Aadmi Party had demanded reservation for SC/ST in the High Courts of the state in 2017, but the then Congress government did not pay any attention to it.
MLA Kuljit Singh Randhawa said that our party had brought amendment in the Act of 2017 and at that time for the first time reservation was given to fill 58 posts of Senior Advocate General or Additional Advocate General or Senior Deputy Advocate General or Deputy Advocate General, Assistant Advocate General or Advocate on Record, which is a historic decision taken in favor of SC of Punjab and Scheduled Tribes of Punjab. The MLA said that as per the criteria set for recruitment, 15 out of 58 posts remained vacant, because due to the high income limit for these posts, no eligible candidate could be found as per the income tax criteria.
The MLA said that in view of this, the government has again relaxed the criteria, according to which the income tax of all the candidates of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe will be halved, that is, Rs 10 lakh in the 20 lakh regime, Rs 7.5 lakh in the 15 lakh regime, Rs 5 lakh in the 10 lakh regime, Rs 3.5 lakh in the 7 lakh regime and Rs 1.75 lakh in the 3.5 lakh regime.
He said that we have relaxed this criterion a lot, so that 15 vacant posts can be filled. MLA Randhawa specially thanked the party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann for this decision. On this occasion, the party's district president and chairperson of the district planning committee Prabhjot Kaur and local leader Naresh Upneja were also present.