Bhubaneswar: Paving the way for elections to various urban local bodies (ULBs), the State Assembly Tuesday passed the Odisha Municipal Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021 to keep the overall reservation in the ULBs at 50 per cent.
Housing and Urban Development Minister Pratap Jena introduced the bill Tuesday evening which was then passed in the house. Article 243T of the Constitution provides for reservation of seats in municipalities.
Accordingly, the Orissa Municipal Act 1950 and the Orissa Municipal Corporation Act 2003 provide for reservation of seats for elections to the extent of 27 per cent in favour of BCC in the state, Jena said in his statement.
Similarly, for SCs & STs, as per provision of the Constitution, reservation of seats has been made in urban areas of Odisha in proportion to their population in the respective urban areas.
In view of the above statutory provisions, in some of the ULBs the reservation of seats for SC, ST and backward classes exceeds 50 per cent.
In 2013, the Orissa High Court had directed the state government to make reservation of seats for SC, ST and BCC within 50 per cent in accordance with the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in the K Krishna Murthy case.
Challenging the order, the state moved to the Supreme Court which had upheld the decision of the HC. In order to comply with the decision of the courts, the government has amended the laws to limit the total extent of reservation for election in ULBs to 50 per cent.
With this amendment, the upper ceiling of reservation of seats for SC, ST and BCC will be 50 per cent and the upper limit of reservation of seats for BCC will not exceed 27 per cent. The government will first give priority to ST and SC population in reservation.
The remaining seats, if left, will be reserved for the backward class citizens with a maximum ceiling of 27 per cent, sources said. Making a similar provision, the state government has also introduced the Odisha Panchayat Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the Assembly.
The bill has been introduced to make necessary amendment in the Orissa Grama Panchayat Act-1964, the Orissa Panchayat Samiti Act-1959 and the Orissa Zilla Parishad Act-1991 to reserve a maximum of 50 per cent seats in the Panchayati Raj Institutions for SC, ST and OBC.
The Assembly has also passed the Odisha Repealing Bill, 2021 to repeal 206 obsolete laws that cover the year from 1974 to 2015. The principal object of the repealing Act is to lessen the burden of the Statute Book. Besides, the House also passed the Odia University (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
PNN