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State Amends Reservation Cap

Bhubaneswar: The State Government has notified the amended Panchayat Acts to cap the reservation of seats in the three-tier panchayat system to 50 per cent for all the three categories comprising STs, SCs and OBCs.

On September 8 this year, the Odisha Legislative Assembly, in its Monsoon Session, had passed the Bill. Governor Ganeshi Lal gave his nod on September 22 for converting the Bill into Law. Accordingly, the Law department has issued the notification of the Odisha Panchayat Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021.

The Act amended relevant provisions of the Odisha Grama Panchayat Act, 1964, the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959 and Odisha Zilla Parishad Act, 1991, Panchayati Raj and Law Minister Pratap Jena said while piloting the Bill.

The amendments in the above three Acts have been made to fix the upper ceiling of reservation of seats for SCs, STs and OBCs at 50 per cent.

Now, maximum 50 per cent seats can be reserved for the SC, ST and OBC persons in the direct or indirect elections for word member, Sarpanch, Samiti Sabhya, block chairman, Zilla Parishad Member and Zilla Parishad President.  

As per Article 243-D of the statute, the State Government has the discretion of reserving seats for OBCs and accordingly, the Odisha Grama Panchayat Act, 1964, the Odisha Panchayat Samiti Act, 1959 and Odisha Zilla Parishad Act, 1991 have been amended to provide 27 per cent of reservation for OBCs in the elections to Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRI).

Similarly, quota for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as per provision of the Constitution, has been fixed in proportion to their population in Odisha.

The government will first give priority to ST and SC population in the reservation of seats for PRI election and the remaining seats, if left, will be reserved for the backward class citizens with a maximum ceiling of 27 per cent, sources said.