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BJP Dalit MLAs threaten to move court over ULB reservation
Dalit legislators of the BJP have threatened to move the court, if the Uttarakhand government doesn’t withdraw its “unconstitutional decision” to notify 12% instead of 19% of nagar palikas and nagar panchayats as reserved ahead of the civic polls, which could be announced shortly
Dalit legislators of the BJP have threatened to move the court, if the Uttarakhand government doesn’t withdraw its “unconstitutional decision” to notify 12% instead of 19% of nagar palikas and nagar panchayats as reserved ahead of the civic polls, which could be announced shortly.
“The decision to reserve 12% of the urban local bodies for the scheduled caste candidates is unconstitutional… As per the legal provisions, 19% of the ULBs should have been notified as reserved,” said BJP’s Dalit face and MLA Chandan Ram Das.
The issue has been taken up with chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and other senior party leaders, he said.
“If our request for reserving 19% ULBs is not heard, we could move the court,” said the former chairman of Vidhan Sabha’s SC/ST committee.
Das said none of the eight municipal corporations has been reserved so far. He, however, clarified that constitutional provisions have not been followed not just in reserving 12% of the Nagar Palika and Nagar Panchayats.
“Similarly, 12% of the ULBs have also been reserved for OBC candidates and 1% for the scheduled tribe (candidates). As per the constitutional provisions, 14% ULBs should have been reserved for the OBCs and 4% for the ST candidates,” he said.
Urban development secretary RK Sudhanshu said the Nagar Palikas and Nagar Panchayats have been reserved for SC/ ST OBCs “strictly in compliance” with the state government rules.
“Those rules were not framed by us (officials)… They were framed by the legislature and were duly passed by the assembly,” he said.
“As per rules, the Nagar Palikas, Nagar Panchayats and municipal corporations are notified as reserved, strictly as per the number of SC/ST and OBC population in urban local bodies.”
Das, however, stuck to his guns asserting that the government rules “can’t override” the constitutional provisions.
“By not following those provisions, it (government) has violated the constitution,” he said.
Incidentally, all the BJP’s 10 Dalit legislators felt that the government ignored the constitutional provisions while reserving some of the Nagar Palikas and Nagar Panchayats.
“We don’t accept the way the government imposed its rules while notifying the ULBs as reserved ignoring the constitutional provisions. We are against such a move,” said party MLA Suresh Rathor, who represents Jwalapur, a reserved assembly seat.
He said the BJP’s Dalit MLAs would take up the issue with the party leadership.
“If our demand is not conceded, we will move the court as a last resort… I am sure before that the government will accept our demand.”
Even more vociferous was the opposition Congress in its criticism of the BJP government on the issue of reserving the ULBs.
“By not reserving the fixed percentage of the ULBs, as per the constitutional provisions, it (government) has certainly defied the constitution,” said Jeet Ram, an academic and the former Congress MLA from Tharali, a reserved assembly constituency.
“This (BJP) government is definitely anti-Dalit and the Dalit legislators of the ruling party must move the court against its decision.”
BJP MLA Das hinted that not reserving more ULBs, as per the constitutional provisions would damage the BJP’s Uttarakhand unit.
“The Dalit sentiment is already against the ruling party after the top court’s recent ruling that cases relating to atrocities against the SCs and STs should be filed following an inquiry,” he said.
Officially, the BJP said the state government “strictly” followed the constitutional provisions while reserving the Nagar Palikas and Nagar Panchayats.
“If they (Dalit legislators) move the court, they will realise that their case is not legally tenable,” said BJP Dehradun city unit president Vinay Goyal.
