Uttar Pradesh Legislature on Tuesday ratified the 126th Constitution Amendment Bill, which extends the reservation to SC/ST in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies for another 10 years. It was approved unanimously in both the Houses of the UP Legislature with the support of all the political parties after a brief discussion.
In Assembly, the sitting continued for around 82 minutes during which the leaders expressed their views and suggestions on the Constitution Amendment. Opposition suggested that a separate resolution should be passed by the House to extend reservation for Anglo-Indians, which had been left out in the present Amendment.
Leader of the opposition and Samajwadi Party leader Ram Govind Choudhury suggested that reservation should be made on the basis of caste and other backward castes (OBCs) should also be given their due representation.
BSP leader Lalji Verma said the government should provide reservation in private sector too as the government is disengaging from the economic activity and most of the services and sectors are being privatised. Congress leader Aradhana Mishra also said that reservation to the Ango-Indians should continue.
Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader Om Prakash Rajhbhar said that backward castes, particularly the extremely backward castes (EBCs), were being ignored by the Yogi Adityanath government. He said the Chief Minister should place the figures in the house as to how many officers from the backward caste and EBCs have been posted in 1,400 police stations in 75 districts of the state. He said the political parties are using backward castes as their vote bank while nothing is being done for their political and economic empowerment.
Apna Dal (Sonelal) leader Neelratan, supporting the Constitution Amendment Bill, said the Speaker should also look at the reservation of political parties in the House. He said despite his party having more members than Congress and SBSP, it was allowed to speak only after the smaller parties.
Denzil J Goden, nominated member from the Anglo-Indian community, also pleaded for the inclusion of his community for reservation in Lok Sabha and state assemblies. He said the constituent assembly, after due deliberations, had decided to include the Anglo-Indian community in the list of reserved communities. Demanding inclusion of the Anglo-Indian community in the Constitution Amendment Bill, he said the biggest problem facing the community was the absence of the credible data about their actual population. He said ever since the first census in 1951, there was a separate column in the census enumeration for the Anglo-Indian community.