MP assembly to hold special sittings on Jan 16, 17

Bhopal, Jan 6 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly will be holding two special sittings of the winter session on January 16 and 17 to ratify increasing of the reservation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for another ten years.

Reservation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha has been extended for ten years. Now a resolution has to be passed by legislatures across the country for ratification.

The Constitution provides for Scheduled Caste-Tribe reservation, the period of which ends on January 25. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have ratified it for a further ten years, but it is required to be ratified by about 50 per cent of the legislative assemblies of the country apart from two Houses.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat has prescribed January 10 as the date for ratification to all the legislatures, the process of which is underway. Even before the scheduled meetings of the winter session of the MP Legislative Assembly were adjourned sine die on December 20.

The Rajya Sabha Secretariat’s information came after this, but the file of prorogation did not reach the Raj Bhavan. Since Chief Minister Kamal Nath was out of the state the process was stopped.

After the Chief Minister returned to the state, it was decided to hold two special sittings of the winter session. On the first day, the proceedings will be adjourned for a next day by paying tribute to late MLA Banwari Lal Sharma.