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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | State to adopt 50% quota for women by Amit Gupta

State to adopt 50% quota for women by Amit Gupta

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published Published on Feb 4, 2010   modified Modified on Feb 4, 2010

In a bid to ensure participation of more women in politics, the state government has proposed changing the present legislation to reserve 50 per cent seats in rural bodies for women.

Deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto, who also holds the panchayati raj portfolio, has already given his consent to the proposal, which, however, has to be passed by the state cabinet.

“We are working on the proposal to grant 50 per cent reservation to women on a horizontal basis in all three tiers of panchayat bodies. The Jharkhand State Panchayati Raj Act, 2001, prescribes 33 per cent reservation, but we are going to propose a change,” panchayati raj director Ganesh Prasad told The Telegraph.

Horizontal basis would mean reservation for women in the open category as well as in seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in all scheduled (reserved for STs) and non-scheduled areas.

The three tiers comprise gram panchayat (panchayat level), panchayat samiti (block level) and zilla parishad (district level).

The department is also trying to ensure that posts of deputies of panchayat chiefs in all three tiers remain unreserved.

The deputies are to be selected indirectly through simple majority among ward members (in gram panchayats) and members (panchayat samiti and zilla parishad).

The second decision is meant to calm the agitating sadan (non-tribal) population across the state. The sadans are completely against the provisions of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) — a central legislation that provides cent per cent reservation for scheduled tribes for the posts of chief and deputy chiefs of all panchayat bodies, across three tiers.

For the posts of mukhiya (gram panchayat), pramukh (panchayat samiti) and chairman (zilla parishad), direct elections will be held. The posts will be reserved for ST nominees in scheduled areas of the state.

Sadans, who comprise over 70 per cent of the state’s population, are up in arms against PESA and have been agitating for a change in the state act since the Supreme Court gave its verdict on on January 12. The court upheld PESA and directed the state government to hold rural polls as soon as possible.

As far as overall reservation is concerned, the present act allows maximum 80 per cent in scheduled areas and 50 per cent in non-scheduled areas. ST, SC and OBCs get reservation in proportion to their population in particular units of panchayat bodies at all three levels.

At present, there are 4,562 gram panchayats, 259 panchayat samitis and 24 zilla parishads. The number of gram panchayats may become less as in the last few years, many of them have been included in the urban fold.

Jharkhand State Panchayati Raj Act, 2001, remains silent on the issue of participation of political parties in rural polls. “It’s up to the government to decide,” said the panchayati raj director.

The panchayati raj department is also contemplating the use of electronic voting machines during rural polls. This too would require a change in the act as the 2001 rules suggest use of ballot papers.

In order to speed things up, the panchayati raj department has issued instructions to all deputy commissioners to reconstitute and renotify gram panchayat boundaries.

Mahto said his department would protect the interest of all as far as panchayat polls were concerned.


The Telegraph, 4 February, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100204/jsp/frontpage/story_12064398.jsp
 

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