The Hindu : `Reservation Centenary Year' to be celebrated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 19, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

`Reservation Centenary Year' to be celebrated

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA Jan. 18. The Chairman of the House Committee in the Rajya Sabha and President of the All-India Koli Samaj, Ramnath Kovind, MP, said today that 2003 would be observed as the "Reservation Centenary Year", commemorating the completion of 100 years of reservation provided to various communities.

Mr. Kovind, who is also the Chairman of the celebration committee of the National Committee for Reservation Centenary Celebration, told presspersons here today that the celebration would be inaugurated at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on February 21 by the Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, and Union ministers and MPs from all the political parties would participate.

He said the centenary celebration would be held all over the country in all the State capitals and district headquarters in phases throughout the year. The concept of reservation for SCs/STs was first conceived in 1902 by the then Maharaja of Kolhapur State, Chatrapathi Sauji Maharaj, and other princely States such as Mysore, Travancore, and Baroda, followed suit. In 1935, the Government of India passed a law providing reservation for SCs/STs all over the nation. However, reservation was guaranteed only after the Indian Constitution was passed in Parliament, he pointed out.

`Resubmit proposal'

Supporting the demand for the inclusion of the Koli community in the list of Scheduled Tribes, Mr. Kovind urged the State Government to resubmit the proposal on the matter by providing all the clarifications sought by the Registrar General of India and the National Commission for STs and SCs, who were the final authorities to recommend to the Union Government the inclusion of any community in the list of SCs/STs. Mr. Kovind pointed out that though the State Government had submitted a proposal recommending the case of the Koli community for inclusion in the list of STs, it failed to provide clarifications to all the queries raised by the Registrar General of India, and that was the main reason for the rejection of the proposal.

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