SP files objections to quota in urban local body polls

The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday submitted its objections to the UP government’s draft notification for the reservation in the forthcoming local bodies polls in the state.

Party’s state unit president Naresh Uttam Patel submitted the objections to the director, Local Bodies Directorate, Lucknow. In the petition, the party objected to the draft notification claiming that there was less than the permissible level of reservation for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.

In the notification issued on March 30, out of the 760 seats in urban local bodies, 288 have been reserved for women, 205 for OBC, 110 for scheduled caste and two seats have been reserved for the scheduled tribe.

The Uttar Pradesh government on March 30 issued the draft notification for the reservation in urban local bodies poll and gave one week’s time (till April 6) for submission of objections to the reservation notification.

A press statement by the Samajwadi Party said Naresh Uttam Patel in his submission pointed out flaws in the notification and demanded amendments accordingly.

Patel, according to the statement, has pointed out that of the total 544 posts of the chairperson of nagar panchayat, there were no seats reserved for SC, ST, and OBCs in Balrampur, Kanpur Nagar, and Lalitpur.

Similarly, Amethi, Amroha, Balrampur, Bijnor, Chandauli, Ghaziabad, Kannauj, Kanpur Nagar, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Mirzapur, Rampur, Shravasti, and Varanasi have no seats reserved for STs. In Balrampur, Chitrakoot, Etawah, Hapur, Kanpur Nagar and Lalitpur, no seats are reserved for OBCs.

He said that for the 544 posts of the chairperson of nagar panchayats, 27% of seats should be reserved for OBCs, in several districts, the reservation is lower than this prescribed limit.

Not a single seat has been reserved for STs in the total 199 posts of nagar palika parishad chairperson while for the post of nagar palika parishad chairperson, not a single seat has been reserved for SC in Basti and Devipatan divisions.

“In UP in the total 17 posts of mayors, SCs should have got 21% reservation and according to the calculation by this standard, a total of 3.57 (that is at least three seats) seats should have been reserved for SCs, but only two of the mayoral posts have been reserved for SCs. So, the SCs have been given only 11% reservation in mayoral posts,” said Patel. He further said in the 17 mayoral posts, the OBC should have got 27% reservation, but they got only 23% reservation.

Patel also pointed out uneven reservations for women and men within the seats reserved for SCs. “Of the 544 nagar panchayat chairperson posts, 84 have been reserved for SCs and of these 84, a total of 61 seats have been reserved for women which are 75% reservation for women within SC reservation and thereby leaving only 23 posts are mere 27% for men...while in nagar palika chairperson posts, a total of the 24 reserved seats for SCs, a major chunk--66% have been reserved for women against the prescribed 33%,” he said. According to Patel, similar unevenness between women and men was visible in the seats reserved for OBCs.