7 SEATS TO SC AND 9 TO ST IN 90-MEMBER J&K ASSEMBLY

                   From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed two Bills — J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill and J&K Reservation Bill — to increase the J&K Assembly from 83 to 90 members, with reservation to 7 Scheduled Castes and 9 Scheduled Tribes in the union territory of J&K with legislature assembly for J&K and no assembly for Ladakh.

Replying to the 2-day debate on the two Bills introduced on July 26 initiated in the Lok Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah asked: “How can a country have two PMs, two constitutions and two flags. Those who did it, they did wrong while PM Modi corrected it. “We have been saying since 1950 that there should be ‘ek pradhan, ek nishan and ek vidhan (constitution) in the country and we have done it,” he said.

He said: “This (reorganisation) Bill is for those who have been oppressed in the past 70 years. This will give them justice and rights.”

The 2019 Act amended in July fixed 83 seats in the Assembly with six reserved for Scheduled Castes and none for Scheduled Tribes. The Bill increases the total number of seats to 90 while reserving 7 seats for SCs and 9 seats for STs.

The Bill enables the LG to nominate to the Assembly two members, including a woman, to represent displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, as long as the displacement took place in 1947-48, 1965 or 1971.

Under the 2004 reservation bill contemplated reservation in jobs and admissions to the professional institutions to members of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other socially and educationally backward classes.

The Bill substitutes ‘weak and under-privileged classes’ with ‘other backward classes” as such by the Government from time to time’ and deletes the definition of weak and under-privileged classes.

Under the proposed legislation, migrants are defined as persons who migrated from the Kashmir valley or any other part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir after November 1, 1989, and are registered with the Relief Commissioner.

Migrants also include individuals who have not been registered due to:

(i) being in government service in any moving office,

(ii) having left for work, or

(iii) possessing immovable property at the place from where they migrated but are unable to reside there due to disturbed conditions.

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