Amendment to provide community specific seat reservation within ST quota deferred due to lack of census figures on population break-up among communities

PANCHAYAT POLLS WILL BE HELD ON SCHEDULE AND AS PER EXISTING ST QUOTA FORMAT, INFORMS RM&DD MINISTER

GANGTOK, 12 Sept: The two-day Assembly session concluded yesterday without the tabling of the amendment to the Sikkim Panchayat Act, 1993, which the Cabinet had cleared on 28 August and which had been announced to reflect the nature and extent of reservation for different segments of the Scheduled Tribes in Sikkim at the panchayat level with quotas set aside for Bhutia, Lepcha, Limboo and Tamang within the ST reserved seats. Needless to add, this has created some confusion as well as suspicion particularly among those in the opposition camp, generating speculations over the government’s intention to conduct the panchayat elections in October as earlier planned by the government. The RM&DD Minister has however assured that the panchayat polls will be held on schedule.
It has now come to light that the proposed amendment to the Sikkim Panchayat Act was withdrawn by the government as it did not have the population figures of the Limboo and Tamang communities of the state without which the proportionate segregation of seats within the ST quota cannot be worked out. While this is the stated position, it is also felt that the proposal of the state government to break up the seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes for the panchayat polls among the ST communities was not sound in law and not in consonance with constitutional provisions.
Meanwhile, RMDD Minister, CB Karki, stated that the panchayat polls will be held in time in the month of October. He clarified that the proposed amendment to the Act was not brought forth as it would have required a census survey of the Limboo and Tamang population of the state so that the percentage of their seat share could be decided. Such a population survey would obviously have been time consuming.
The RMDD Minister further clarified that a census survey would have been required as the state government does not have the census figures of the two population groups. DESME, the concerned department, is reported to have informed the state government that it was not in possession of the latest census figures of the two communities.
“The amendment requires us to have the population figures of the two communities and it will not be possible to allocate earmarked seat share as planned without the census figures,” stated Mr. Karki.
In fact, such a move to allocate seat share without any sound basis would also be ‘illegal’. So, in such a situation the state has decided to use the same pattern of seat reservation as it did in the last Panchayat polls of 2007 the Minister informs.
“We have decided conduct the panchayat polls as per the notification issued in 2007 and will go according to the reservation pattern stated therein”, Mr. Karki stated.
This effectively means that there will be no separate seat allocation or reservation for LTs or BLs within the ST reserved seats and they will be contesting the reserved seats as reserved under the category of Scheduled Tribes [and not Limboo, Tamang, Bhutia and Lepcha].
While this has now been finalized, earlier the Cabinet had itself approved the proposal to demarcate separate seats for each ST community within the ST reserved seats.
The RMDD Minister further assured that the panchayat polls will be held as ‘scheduled’ in October. As per the notification of 2007 a total of 91% seats in panchayat polls are reserved for the various sections of the population which includes ST, SC, OBC etc.