Bill for seeking 80 per cent reservation for sikkimes still pending

Gangtok Feb 8: A bill seeking 80 per cent employment for locals is still pending with President Pratibha Patil after the former governor of state referred it to her.

The bill is still pending with the President for consideration, Assembly Secretariat officials told Media.

Former governor Sudarshan Agarwal had referred the bill to the President for consideration about six months ago. Exercising his discretionary powers, Agarwal chose not to dispose of the Sikkim Promotion of Local Employment Bill (Bill No 18 of 2008) after having refused to give his assent to an identical bill (bill no 9 of 2008) which had proposed to reserve 95 per cent employment for the locals.

He stated that it was in contravention of Articles 14, 15 and 19(1)(g) of the Constitution and the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court with regard to the upper limit prescribed for the purpose of reservation.

The former governor, whose tenure came to an end in July last year, forwarded the bill to the President for consideration under Clause 2 of Article 254 of the constitution before demitting office.

The Chamling Government was last year forced to withdraw the bill seeking 95 per cent reservation of employment for locals after it was not approved by the then governor.

The state government, however, introduced a new draft legislation seeking to reserve 80 per cent employment for the local people during another session of the state assembly and got it passed unanimously by a voice vote.

The legislation on promotion of local employment had proposed to percolate the benefits of reservation in employment to all sections of the society in Sikkim.

It proposed to reserve employment at 10 per cent each for the wards of the traders/old settlers and the floating population, besides seeking to reserve 80 per cent jobs strictly for locals having Sikkim Subject Certificate or Certificate of Identification.

While the state government may not have succeeded in ensuring job reservation, it has ensured 50 per cent membership for locals in all associations, organisations, clubs, societies and voluntary organisations and also on the panels of the board of directors of the companies registered in Sikkim.

The new Governor B P Singh gave his assent to two legislations, Registration of Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2008 (Bill No 30 of 2008) and Sikkim Regulation of Societies, Associations and Other Voluntary Organisations (Amendment) Bill, 2008 (Bill No. 31 of 2008).