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SC\/ST New Quotas<\/strong><\/p>\n By Insaf<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Three cheers to the Supreme Court. Political parties and state governments across the country will need to think twice before playing the reservation card. By a 6-1 majority ruling, the top court on Thursday held there should be new quotas within Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to ensure \u2018constitutional guarantee of equality\u2019. It did so by striking down a 2004 verdict which barred sub-classification of SC\/ST for reservation. The reasoning: SCs don\u2019t constitute a socially homogenous class and can be sub-classified by states for providing quota for those less privileged. The ruling said \u2018power of Parliament to vary the list includes not merely the power to exclude or include any caste, race or tribe but also power to exclude or include parts of or group within any caste, race or tribe\u2026\u2019 However, it cautioned that while the state may embark on sub-classification, \u2018it must do so on quantifiable and demonstratable data bearing on levels of backwardness and representation in the services of the state.\u2019 It cannot, \u201cmerely act on its whims and fancies or as a matter of political expediency. The decision of the state is amenable to judicial review.\u201d<\/p>\n The states which have welcomed or questioned the verdict will thus need to tread carefully. This, as historically different Dalit castes have in almost all states benefited differently from reservation provided by the Constitution. Three states, Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh had particularly taken the lead since 1975 and split the SC quota into sub-groups for a share to the most deprived among Dalits, such as Balmikis and Mazhabi Sikhs in Punjab or the Madigas in AP or Haryana dividing SC quota into categories A and B, limiting seats for leather working caste to 50% and opening the rest to other SC groups. State governments such as Telangana, Karnataka, Bihar, Tamil Nadu have welcomed the move, saying their stand was vindicated, others were happy an obstacle in the internal reservation has been removed. But it isn\u2019t going to be easy as level of backwardness would need to be spelt out or what the preferential policies would eventually be. In the times to come, the proof of the pudding would be in its eating!<\/p>\n \n Rain God\u2019s Devastating Fury<\/p>\n There\u2019s no let-up in rain god\u2019s fury. Devastating landslides in Wayanad in god\u2019s own country, heavy rains in Uttarakhand and cloudburst in Himachal Pradesh have not only taken a massive toll but again sent a loud message that playing with ecology and mindless construction boom will only invite havoc and disaster. Indeed, the death toll in Wayanad is 308, in Himachal its 5 dead and 50 missing and in Uttarakhand 11 and 250 stranded in Kedarnath. Sadly, warning by experts decades ago or even these past few years of having a balance between development and environment has been ignored by governments. Worse, politics as usual comes to the fore even in these tragic times. Such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah informing Rajya Sabha that Centre had sent multiple advance warnings to Kerala government about possible floods and landslides and even dispatched 9 NDRF teams, but Chief Minister Vijayan outrightly denying it. A day later, a Congress member in same house urged the Centre to provide relief to Himachal government, as none came its way despite requests last year when some districts were wrecked by rains. Will the Centre declare Wayanad tragedy as a national disaster as demanded by Kerala government? A bigger question being will the governments heed to warnings of climate change and be safe rather than being sorry.<\/p>\n Karnataka Governor Row<\/p>\n Congress-led government in Karnataka has been thrown into a tizzy. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has issued a \u2018show cause notice\u2019 to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah stating allegations him \u201care of serious nature and prime facie seem plausible\u201d and why prosecution sanction mustn\u2019t be accorded viz alleged irregularities in distribution of sites to land losers by Mysuru Urban Development Authority, including his wife Parvathi. This after a delegation of BJP MLAs met him on July 25 demanding transfer of the case (being probed by a former HC judge) to CBI and Siddaramaiah\u2019s resignation and advocate-activist Abraham seeking sanction to prosecute. Siddaramaiah along with his deputy, Shivakumar rushed on Tuesday to Delhi to meet party high command. Two days later, the Cabinet met to plan \u2018a political and legal strategy\u2019 and decided to \u2018advise\u2019 Gehlot to withdraw his notice as it\u2019s \u2018a concerted effort to destabilise a lawfully elected majority government.\u2019 While it maintained there\u2019s nothing illegal in Parvathi receiving alternative sites from MUDA for \u2018usurping\u2019 her land, BJP claims the compensatory sites were given to her in an upmarket area, having higher value as compared to location of her land, \u2018acquired\u2019 by MUDA and the \u2018scam\u2019 is worth Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore! All eyes are now on this Governor-Chief Minister pow wow.<\/p>\n \n RSS Defended<\/p>\n The RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Maharashtra should say a big thank you to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar. During Question Hour, when SP member R L Suman said government took RSS affiliation as a criterion in selecting head of NTA, as reported in a national daily, Dhakhar stopped him saying \u201cRSS is a global think tank of highest order, doing national service\u201d and his statement was \u2018a violation of Constitution and Fundamental Rights\u2026\u2019 Adding \u201cI hereby rule, RSS is an organisation that has full constitutional rights to participate in development journey of this nation. It bears unimpeachable credentials, comprises of people who are deeply committed to serving the nation selflessly\u2026RSS has been contributing for national welfare, our culture, and everyone should take pride in any organisation which is acting in this manner.\u201d Leader of Opposition Kharge questioned if a member was speaking within rules, he\/she shouldn\u2019t be prevented. But Dhankhar was firm- \u2018the member wasn\u2019t transgressing rules, he was trampling on Constitution\u2026\u2019RSS has one shoulder to cry on.<\/p>\n \n Make Goa \u2018Dry\u2019!<\/p>\n Imagine Goa, which thrives on tourism, goes dry! Well, that\u2019s what BJP MLA Premendra Shet has sought from his Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. During discussion on demands for grants for excise department in Assembly on Tuesday last, Shet demanded a ban on alcohol consumption in the state. His reasons: For \u2018Viksit Bharat\u2019 and \u2018Viksit Goa\u2019; to reduce liquor-related deaths in road accidents (4-5 per day) and in factories; ban won\u2019t impact tourism. \u201cWe can produce alcohol and export it to others, but its consumption must be banned,\u201d he said accusing retail outlets of selling liquor beyond permissible timings and wholesalers selling it for retail customers. \u2018Alcoholism is on rise, we need to control it.\u2019 Sawant chose to ignore his plea, obviously for good reasons. Goa is famous for its beaches and night life not just among domestic but also foreign tourists, some who have luxury of chartered flights. No booze can make a huge dent to its exchequer, as tourism undoubtedly will see a huge dip. \u2014 INFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SC\/ST New Quotas By Insaf Three cheers to the Supreme Court. Political parties and state governments across the country will need to think twice before playing the reservation card. By a 6-1 majority ruling, the top court on Thursday held there should be new quotas within Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to ensure \u2018constitutional guarantee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-features"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}