KCB to notify ward for SC/ST

PUNE, Dec 21: Following a ruling by the Mumbai High Court, the Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) will soon take a decision on reserving one o...

PUNE, Dec 21: Following a ruling by the Mumbai High Court, the Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) will soon take a decision on reserving one of its wards for the SC/ST candidates. The board has seven wards.

It may be mentioned that Dr N R Gandham, a former member of the cantonment board had filed a writ petition in 1996, urging the court to direct the Central Government and the KCB to postpone its elections since then it failed to reserve a ward for the SC/ST candidates. The high court however refused an interim stay on the elections with the two member division bench maintaining that results of the election would be subject to the verdict of the final hearing. The board had requested the court that since they had started the action process, the high court should allow the cantonment board to go ahead with the election. The board in its affidavit had pleaded that it had already spent around Rs 3 lakh in the poll process and contended that although it had already sent a letter to the Central Government suggesting a revision of wards, the government did not take any action.

During the hearing held in December 1996, the court had contended that the SC/ST population in Khadki cantonment area had exceeded the requisite 14 per cent and the Central Government in 1967 had already issued the directives to the board for a revision of the wards. The high court had then allowed the cantonment board to continue its process following an undertaking that the board would reserve a ward for the SC/ST candidates before the next election.

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The petitioners had demanded the revision of ward number 7 for SC/ST candidates on the grounds that the SC/ST population in the area exceeded the requisite 14 per cent of the population. The census figures of 1991 however provide some interesting details. As compared to the rest of the wards, ward no 2 of the cantonment board comprises the maximum SC/ST population as compared to the others. The SC/ST population in this ward is around 2609 as against the total population of 9193 in the same ward. ward no 7 on the other hand has only 2169 ST/ST against the population of 22,238. ward no 1 comes a close second with an SC/ST population of around 2585 as against a general population of 11,601. ward no 4 has an SC/ST population of around 1444, ward no 5, a population of 1645 while ward number 3 has just 628 members of SC/ST. Interestingly, the cantonment board in its earlier affidavit had mentioned that the 1991 census figures of the SC/ST population did not merit the need for a separate ward for this section.However, the recent figures had indicated a rise in population in these pockets of the cantonment area sufficient for a reserved ward at this juncture.

CEO Ajay Kumar told The Indian Express that the board would soon notify one of the wards for the SC/ST candidates as per Rule (3) of the Cantonments Act, 1924.