Govt not averse to political reservation for ST: Azad

Jammu, Aug 6 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said the state government was not averse to reservation of seats for schedule tribes in the Assembly if all political parties arrived at a consensus on the issue.

Mr Azad while addressing a gathering in a vocational training centre set up by Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust here asked the ST people constituting a prominent segment of the state's population, to work for such a consensus during the session of the state legislature to be resumed after a recess on August 20.

The Chief Minister said political reservation for a section of the population required constitutional amendment for which political parties in the legislature would have to arrive at a consensus.

''So far as his Congress party was concerned it had no reservation in accepting the demand. Given the numbers in the assembly, the party on its own cannot affect the amendment to the Constitution,'' he said Support of other political parties, particularly the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the National Conference (NC), was also required to amend the law, he added.

The Chief Minister said political reservation could be given according to the population without infringing on the rights of other segments of the society.

He said he had convened a meeting of all political parties to arrive at a consensus on setting up of a Delimitation Commission and 25 per cent increase in the seats of the state assembly.

Mr Azad said even if the increase in assembly seats could not materialize, still the delimitation of seats and reservation for scheduled tribes could be agreed upon.

Recalling the Congress party manifesto and the Common Minimum Programme of the ruling coalition, he said a Bill was ready on the subject and asked all political parties to support him in getting it through in the legislature.

The Chief Minister referred to several decisions taken by the government recently especially during the meetings of Advisory Boards of Gujjar and Bakarwal and Paharis for speedy socio-economic transformation of the schedule tribes.

He said his government had attached top priority to the development of downtrodden and economically backward sections of the society.

UNI