Mumbai, Sept. 26 -- Senior Maharashtra minister and prominent OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal has asserted that caste-based social backwardness, not poverty, is the sole basis of India's reservation policy.
Reservation is not a poverty alleviation programme and cannot be granted on the basis of economic criteria, Bhujbal said, responding to remarks made earlier by NCP MP Supriya Sule, who had suggested that reservation should be extended on economic grounds. He told a private news channel that he disagreed with that view.
He pointed out that the government already provides various forms of assistance to the poor.
Farmers are receiving aid, and OBC students' concessions are also being made available to Maratha students.
In areas where there a...