Gangtok: The BJP does not agree with the statement of the Minister Law, Parliamentary Affairs, Commerce, Industry and Tourism on Limboo and Tamang seat reservation in the Sikkim State Legislative Assembly. It is true that the reservation of seat is done by the Parliament but the Parliament cannot do anything unless the same is passed by the State Legislative Assembly and sent to the Government of India, Sikkim unit of BJP argued. But the State Assembly has not passed any proposal for reservation of seats for Limboo and Tamang despite a clear proposal sought by the Government of India vide its letter of 30th July 2005( 2 years back) giving even option to make the Assembly strength either 32 or 40 or even 60. This was followed by the reminder D.O. letter No. IV/11015/1/2005-CSR- II of 1st May 2006 (more than a year back) from Shri A. K. Srivastava, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs of Government of India requesting to send convincing justification to increase the strength of the Assembly to 40 based on the discussion with the Chief Secretary on 24.04.2006. The Government has not acted upon this as yet and hence the Government of India has not been able to place any proposal in the Parliament, C. B. Chettri, General Secretary of the BJP Sikkim Unit said. If the Government of Sikkim has sent any proposal, let that be made public.It may not be correct to say that the reservation of seats in the Assembly cannot exceed 50% as per the verdict of the Supreme Court (I Sawney Vrs. Govt. of India). This ceiling is to the best of our knowledge is only for education and job under Article 16 of the constitution. The reservation of seats in the Assembly is done under Article 332 of the Constitution of India. There is already a provision of reservation of all Assembly seats except one for Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland under 332 (3A) of the Constitution of India, making the reservation more than 50%. For Sikkim, even 100% reservation may be made under 332 of the Constitution of India as enabled by Article 371F (f). However the proposal has to go to the Government of India after the same is passed by the Sikkim Legislative Assembly, he said.As regard to the excuse of the census of Limboo- Tamang has not been done, this is not convincing, he added.
