Patna, Apr 14 (UNI) Union Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi on Monday demanded reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council in states across the country.

Manjhi, also a patron of HAM, while addressing a function organised by his party to pay tributes to Bheem Rao Ambedkar on his birth anniversary, said that reservations for SCs and STs should also be given in Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council in states. Reservation for them only in Lok Sabha and state assemblies was not enough, he noted.

"Congress, during its more than 60 years of rule in the country, did nothing for SCs and STs," Manjhi said, adding that Bheem Rao Ambedkar was not given due respect by successive Congress governments at the Centre. V P Singh government had felicitated Ambedkar with the Bharat Ratna award posthumously in 1990, he added.

The union minister said that Scheduled Castes were still far behind all other sections of society on development parameters. National-level literacy was 80 per cent in the country, while the literacy rate among Scheduled Castes was only 30 per cent, he added.

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