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Maharashtra ratifies extension to SC, ST reservation
The Maharashtra Legislature on Wednesday ratified the Constitutional amendment Bill passed by Parliament to extend the reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Lok Sabha and legislative Assemblies by 10 years.
The bill passed by both the Houses of the Parliament on December 11 needs to be ratified by at least 50% of the state governments. The resolution was passed unanimously in both the Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said extension for political reservation for the communities that still are away from the mainstream will ensure their fair representation. “Tribals in many parts of the state, including Melghat, are far from the mainstream. Forget Hindi or English, they do not even understand Marathi and speak their own dialect. The ratification will ensure all communities are brought on a par, weeding out the need for any such reservation in the near future,” he said.
Leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis said the extension will create a level-playing field for all. “The architect of the Constitution, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, had said that, apart from being qualitative or quantitative, democracy should also be representative. The amendment will help achieve that,” he said.
The legislative Council witnessed uproar during the proceedings of the passage of the proposal after controversial references by leader of Opposition Pravin Darekar. Members of Congress and other parties raised strong objections to the statement related to former prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s stand on reservation. After chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar’s assurance to expunge objectionable references, the resolution was passed unanimously.