It looks like the President will give his assent to the Amendment Bill to Article 371(J) by the end of this year or definitely in January and it would be a new year gift to the people of Hyderabad-Karnataka, said Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge.
Kharge, who represents Gulbarga constituency in the Lok Sabha, told Express over phone from New Delhi that due to some technical problem in the approval of the amendment on Tuesday, the government tabled it again in the Lok Sabha on Friday and it was unanimously passed.
The Rajya Sabha had passed the Bill last Thursday.
Kharge said that following the opinion sought by the Home Ministry, the Law Department has said that as the matter of Amendment to Article 371 would come under chapter 368 of the Constitution and as it does not affect the fundamental rights, there is no necessity of sending it to all the states for ratification.
As the Bill was passed unanimously, the assent of the President is enough to make it an Act, the Law Department has opined, he said.
The Union Minister said that he would camp in New Delhi for a few more days to pursue the matter and try to get the assent to the Bill by the year-end.
After the assent, it would be sent to the Karnataka government for framing rules and regulations for the implementation of the Act.
These rules and regulations should be approved by the President, he added.
The people of H-K had asked for amendment to Article 371 on the Telangana model [D model] as it would facilitate the people to get reservation in employment and education but the Centre gifted a combination of Telangana model and Vidarbha model (it provides opportunity of statutory development board to take up developmental activities) which would be known as J model, Kharge said.