2010 IRCTC tender policy: NHRC seeks probe into minorities reservation by then Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: A bench of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Railway Board to investigate a complaint alleging that in 2010, when the incumbent West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, was the Railways Minister, a tender policy was amended to provide reservation under the guise of minority preference, reducing the statutory reservation for SC/ST/OBC categories to benefit the Muslim community, which is not provided for under the Constitution of India.

As per the available documents, a reservation was made for minorities in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC)’s tendering process for awarding contracts for the operation of railway catering stalls and canteens.

After getting elected to the Lok Sabha for the sixth consecutive term from Kolkata (Dakshin) constituency in 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the Railways Minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II government led by the then-Prime Minister, Late Dr Manmohan Singh.

However, she resigned as the minister after becoming the Chief Minister of West Bengal following the 2011 state Assembly polls, which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front regime in West Bengal.

During that short period as the railways minister from 2009 to 2011, she reportedly amended the policy to provide a certain percentage reservation for minorities in the IRCTC’s tendering process for awarding contracts for the operation of railway catering stalls and canteens.

The matter was brought to the notice of NHRC recently by the activist group, Legal Rights Observatory. Thereafter, a bench headed by NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo issued a notice to the Railway Board, directing them to investigate the matter and take appropriate legal action.

In the complaint filed by Legal Rights Observatory, it was argued that the said reservation was implemented for appeasement and did not appear to be in accordance with the Indian Constitution. The complainant also argued that the reservation seemed to have infringed upon and curtailed the rights of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Class categories.

According to the complaint, the reservation in allotment for categories A, B and C for minorities was three per cent and that for D, E and F categories was 9.5 per cent.

To recall, last year, the Calcutta High Court division bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty and Justice Rajasekhar Mantha scrapped all OBC certificates that were issued by the West Bengal government after 2010, because the majority of these certificates were granted based on religion.

Last week the Election Commission of India (ECI) also clarified that the OBC certificates issued by the West Bengal government after 2010, will not be treated as supporting identity documents in the ongoing hearing sessions on the claims and objections on the draft voters’ list in the state, which is second stage of the three-stage Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.

IANS