This story is from July 28, 2016

Cong, BJP back Lalu plea on job quota for locals

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is in for a piquant situation with not only his allies, the RJD and Congress, but opposition parties like BJP and RLSP also demanding 80% reservation for locals in state government jobs.
Cong, BJP back Lalu plea on job quota for locals
RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
PATNA: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is in for a piquant situation with not only his allies, the RJD and Congress, but opposition parties like BJP and RLSP also demanding 80% reservation for locals in state government jobs. A day after Lalu Prasad, the supreme leader of RJD, the biggest partner in Nitish Kumar government, demanded 80% reservation for locals in government jobs, the Congress, another ally of Nitish Kumar, joined the chorus on Thursday.
To the surprise of many, the main opposition party BJP, along with its ally RLSP, dared RJD to bring a proposal for 80% reservation if Lalu was really serious about the welfare of local youths. “I dare Lalu to bring the proposal in the assembly and we will support it,” said senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, adding “The demand of Lalu was just a political stunt.”
With Congress backing the demand, 107 MLAs in the three-party ruling alliance having 178 members are in support of the demand. The RJD and Congress have 80 and 27 MLAs, respectively. In case BJP and RLSP, which have 53 and one MLA, respectively, support the demand, the total number of MLAs in support would be 161 in the House of 243 members.
On Wednesday, Lalu had said Nitish should give 80% reservation to local people in government jobs so that youths from Bihar are not forced to migrate to other states in search of jobs. It will also prevent outsiders from taking away jobs from local youths.
“The demand raised by Laluji is highly justified and the government should make provision to reserve 80% seats in jobs for Biharis. The government should protect the interests of local youths and implement the system in at least class III and IV jobs to begin with,” said senior Congress member and state animal husbandry and fisheries minister Awdhesh Kumar Singh.
“We are not against outsiders, but the interests of local youths should be protected as majority of them come from weaker sections of society,” he added.
Singh said many other states, including Jharkhand, have provisions for employment to locals in class III and IV jobs. “I don’t see anything wrong if the same is implemented in Bihar,” he added.
On the other hand, reiterating his demand on Thursday, Lalu said the ball was now in CM’s court.
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