LS passes bill to extend SC-ST quota in legislatures

New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Tuesday unanimously passed a Constitution amendment bill to extend reservation to SCs and STs in Lok Sabha and state assemblies by another 10 years even though the opposition slammed the government for not giving the benefit to the Anglo-Indian community.
Responding to the debate on the Constitution (126th) Amendment Bill, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that quota in legislatures for SCs and STs was required to build a new political leadership of the two communities.
He also said that the government is against the concept of “creamy layer” for the SC, ST communities as they are anyway backward and should not be “segregated” on such lines.
A few days ago, the government had urged the Supreme Court to reconsider its stand that socially, educationally and economically advanced cream of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) communities should be excluded from the benefits of reservation in government services.
The bill was passed with 352 members voting in favour and none against it. The reservation for SCs, STs and Anglo-Indians given for the past 70 years in Lok Sabha and state assemblies was due to end on January 25, 2020.
The reservation for Anglo-Indians in the form of “nomination” is set to expire on January 25 as the bill does not extend the facility to the community.
Prasad, however, said the doors are not shut and the matter to grant Anglo-Indians nomination would be considered.
Overjoyed by unanimous passage of Bill: PM
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he was “overjoyed” that Lok Sabha unanimously passed a Bill to extend reservation for SCs and STs.
“We are unwaveringly committed towards the empowerment of our citizens, especially the marginalised,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter.
Modi was present in Lok Sabha when the members voted for the Bill. It was passed with 352 members voting in favour and none against it.
“I am overjoyed on the unanimous passage of the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2019 that extends SC/ST reservations for ten more years,” he said. (PTI)