BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh Public Service (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Amendment Ordinance- 2019 which clears the decks for increasing the OBC reservation to 27% was ratified by the state cabinet on Monday evening.
The state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Kamal Nath cleared the proposal for raising the OBC reservation cap from 14% to 27%.
This means that the total reservation for SC, ST and OBC in the state reaches 63%, a breach of the 50% reservation cap, as stipulated in Article 16 of Constitution of India.
On March 19, the MP High Court’s Jabalpur bench had stayed the state government’s decision increasing OBC reservation from 14% to 27%.
On March 8, the MP Governor Anandiben Patel had approved an ordinance to increase the reservation for OBC in the state from 14% to 27%. Just a few days prior to it, CM Kamal Nath had announced the move to increase the OBC reservation by 13%, maintaining that it was must for safeguarding interests of OBC segment which formed around 52% of the state’s population.
In the other decisions taken by the state cabinet on Monday, a decision was taken to increase the Daily Allowance/Relief in the 7th Payscale of Government servants, permanent employees, panchayat secretaries and pensioners/family pensioners.
This decision will benefit about 7 lakh government servants and 4.5 lakh pensioners of the state. The increased amount from January 1 to March 30 will be deposited in the general provident fund account.
Cash payment will be made from the salary of the month of May 2019. This will contribute to an annual expense of Rs 1647 crores by the state government.
The Cabinet also took the decision to auction the diamond mine situated in 364 hectares (forest land) area in Chhatarpur district.
The area has an estimated diamond mineral storage of about 34.20 million carats. Its estimated storage value is Rs 60,000 crores.
This is based on the selling price published by IBM. Two new conditions have been added in the interest of Madhya Pradesh in the auction.
This includes the first auction in Madhya Pradesh and after the first auction, the pattaholder will be free to export and sell it anywhere. The Mining Department has been authorized to start the auction process and obtain necessary permissions from the central government.
The Cabinet decided to set up a sub-regional science centre. Approval has also been given for the creation of 8 posts to be filled on outsource/contractual basis in the Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology to set up/run the Centre.
This includes one post each of Curator and Education Assistant, 4 of Technician and 2 each of Lower Division Clerk/Office Assistant.