Chandigarh, May 8 - Ensuring the political reservation rights of Backward Classes (A) in the urban local bodies, Haryana Cabinet which met under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal today accepted the Haryana Backward Classes Commission’s report on the proportion of reservation for Backward Classes in Municipalities.

The Commission headed by former Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice (Retd) Sh. Darshan Singh conducted the dedicated empirical inquiry for the assessment of the political backwardness of the Backward Classes of Citizens. In the assessment, the Commission found that the Backward Classes of Citizens, Block- A (BC-A) are not adequately represented in the political setup, so they require the support of reservation in the election of local bodies/municipalities, for adequate participation in the grassroot democratic setup.

Recommended Reservation in Municipalities

The office of Councillor in every Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Municipal Committee shall be reserved for backward classes Block-A of citizens and the numbers of seats so reserved shall bear as nearly as may be the same proportion to the total numbers of seats in that urban local area as one-half of the percentage of the population of Backward Classes Block-A of citizens to the total population in that urban local area. In case the decimal value is 0.5 or more it shall be rounded off to the next higher integer.

Provided that every local body/municipality shall have at least one councillor belonging to backward classes Block-A of citizens if its population is not less than 2% of the total urban population of the local body area.

Further, eight percent of the number of offices of Mayors/Presidents shall be reserved for the backward classes Block-A of citizens in the Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and Municipal Committees. It shall be rounded off to the next higher integer in case the decimal value is 0.5 or more.

The Commission has stated that as per the direction of the Apex Court, the reservation shall not exceed the aggregate of 50 percent of the total seats reserved in favour of Scheduled Castes and BC (A) taken together in a particular Urban local body/municipality.

It is further made clear that where the number of seats so reserved for Backward Classes (A) under the foregoing classes added to the number of the seats reserved for Scheduled Castes exceeds 50 percent of the total numbers of seats in the given local body/municipality, then the numbers of seats reserved for Backward Classes (A) shall be restricted to such largest number that will lead to the total of seats reserved for Backward Classes (A) and Scheduled Castes taken together does not exceed 50 percent of the total seats of the Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Municipal Committee.

Clarification on the interpretation of the aforesaid recommendations

In order to clarify the interpretation of the aforesaid recommendations the Commission has cited the following examples:

For example in the urban local area, "A" the population of the backward classes Block A of citizens is 25 percent of the total population of that urban local area then 12.5 percent of seats shall be reserved for Backward Classes Block —A of citizens subject to the other conditions mentioned above.

Where in a given urban local area the population of the Scheduled Castes is 50 percent or more the Backward Classes Block-A of citizens will not get any reservation irrespective of the percentage of their population.

Where the population of Scheduled Castes is 40 percent of the population of the urban local body and there are 10 seats in the urban local area then 4 seats will be reserved for the Scheduled Castes remaining one seat shall be available for reservation to the Backward Classes Block-A of citizens, subject to the other conditions mentioned above.

The Backward Classes Block—A of citizens will get one seat in the municipality even if as per the percentage of reservation available to them no seat becomes available for them provided their population in the urban local area concerned is not less than 2 percent.