Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, right, addresses a press conference with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Nagpur, Wednesday, December 25. Photo credit: PTI
Maharashtra Minister Chandrashekhar Bawanku said on Wednesday (Dec 25, 2024) that pending elections to local bodies in the state would be held in March-April 2025 if the Supreme Court gave its verdict on OBC reservation in the first week of January.
Addressing a press conference here, he said that a hearing on quota for Other Backward Classes (OBC) is listed in the Supreme Court in the first week of January.
“The state election commission will conduct the election and the state government will provide all the support”, said the revenue minister.
The five-year term of most municipal corporations, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), and other local bodies in the state, ended in 2022.
In December 2021, the Supreme Court had ordered that reservation for OBCs in local bodies would not be allowed unless the government fulfilled the triple test laid down in the Supreme Court’s 2010 order. It was decided that the OBC seats will be re-notified as general category seats until the triple test criteria is met.
The triple test required the state government to collect data on the backwardness of OBCs in each local body, specify the ratio of reservation in each local body in the light of the commission’s recommendations, and constitute a dedicated commission to ensure that such reservation does not occur. More than 50 percent of total seats reserved along with SC/ST/OBC.
Bawankule further said that there are complaints that many properties owned by private charitable trusts and educational institutions were forcibly acquired by the Waqf Board in Maharashtra.
“Once the Waqf (Amendment) Bill is passed by Parliament, it will come into effect in Maharashtra. If there are any mistakes, they will be corrected,” he said.
The Maharashtra BJP chief said that under the Survey of Village Population and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas (SVAMITVA), the process of drone surveying of villages has started in 2021 to provide e-property cards to farmers for ownership of their land. rural areas.
He said that e-property cards of 15 thousand 327 villages out of 30 thousand 515 rural villages have been prepared and will be distributed soon.
published – Dec 25, 2024 05:49 pm IST