Dr. Pawan Chamling attends meeting of UPA partners

The Chief Minister, Dr. Pawan Chamling attended a meeting of UPA partners convened by Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, United Progressive Alliance at 7 Race Course Road, New Delhi at the residence of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh at 7 p.m on April 6, on the issue of resolving on the best course of action to meet the situation arising out of the recent developments on the issue of OBC reservations in admission to Central Educational Institutions consequent to the interim judgment of Supreme Court on 29th March 2007 on the subject, according to a press release received from Principal Secretary to HCM. Under Constitution 93rd Amendment Act, 2005 a new clause (5) was inserted as Article 15(5) of the Constitution, with effect from January 20, 2006 providing as follows: “15 (5) Nothing in this article or in sub-clause(g) of clause (1) of Article 19 shall prevent the State from making any special provision, by law, for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions, whether aided or unaided by the State, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of Article 30”. 2. The avowed objective of Article 15(5) is to promote the educational advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes (SEdBCs) of citizens, i.e., the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) or of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) or Scheduled Tribes (STs) in matters of admission of students belonging to these categories in educational institutions including unaided educational institutions, other than the minority educational institutions referred to in clause (1) of Article 30 of the Constitution. The new clause (5) would enable the Parliament as well as State legislatures to make appropriate laws for the purposes mentioned above. 3. The Chief Minister supported the exercise taken for vacating the stay of the Court so as to enable the policy reservation resolved by Parliament through the 93 rd Amendment Act and thus prevent the loss of any further time for socially and educationally backward classes OBC students. The Chief Minister also spoke on the early resolution of various demands of the State with regard to recognition of Lepchas as Most Primitive Tribe, reservation of seats for Limboo and Tamang communities in Sikkim Legislative Assembly consequent to the inclusion of these communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes/ Protection of 12 seats reserved for the Bhutia-Lepcha communities in Sikkim Legislative Assembly, enlistment of remaining Ethnic Communities like Kirat Khambu Rai, Gurung, Mangar, Sunuwar, Thami, Dewan and Bhujel as Scheduled Tribes, Inclusion of Bahun, Chettri and Newar Communities declared as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under State Government Notification as Other Backward Class (OBC) under Central Government Notification