Patna, May 18: The Centre should raise the reservation limit to 75 per cent from the existing cap of 50 per cent and castes agitating for quota should be accommodated, Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment Ramdas Athawale said today.

"The problem is that the Supreme Court says that reservation cannot be more than 50 per cent. However, the Union government should decide to bring a constitutional amendment to raise it to 75 per cent," Athawale said.

Athawale, founder of the Republican Party of India (A) and a Dalit leader from Maharashtra, said the distance between castes was increasing, as manifest by Marathas in Maharashtra, Patels in Gujarat and Jats in Haryana and Rajasthan demanding qupta.

"It is time to resolve the issue. All castes, including Marathas, Patels, Jats and even Rajputs, will automatically get reservation if its limit is raised to 75 per cent," he said. "The Centre should ensure that reservation benefits to the existing Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) are not impacted."

He was in Patna to review Bihar's implementation of central welfare schemes.

"Atrocities on Dalits should not be seen as a political issue. It is a casteist issue. No political leader, be it Nitish Kumar in Bihar or anybody else in any other state, could be responsible of such atrocities," said Athawale, whose induction as minister was seen by political pundits as an effort to woo Dalits.

He said inter-caste marriages are the best tool to break the caste hierarchy.

State government officials told him that applications for only eight such marriages were received in 2016 in Bihar of which five were recommended for the Rs 3.5 lakh encouragement money given jointly by the Centre and the state in case the bride or the groom is Dalit.