Rajya Sabha takes up discussion on two J&K bills

New Delhi [India], December 11 (ANI): Rajya Sabha on Monday took up discussion on two bills on Jammu and Kashmir, with Home Minister Amit Shah likely to reply to the debate later in the day.

The Rajya Sabha took up discussion on Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The two bills were passed by Lok Sabha last week.

One of the bills seeks to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004. It was enacted to provide for reservation in appointments and admission in professional institutions for the members of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and other socially and educationally backward classes.

The bill seeks to amend Section 2 of the Reservation Act to change the nomenclature of “weak and underprivileged classes (social castes)” to “other backward classes” and make consequential amendments.

The other bill seeks to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.

The Act amended the Second Schedule of the 1950 Act to specify the total number of seats in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.

The proposed Bill increases the total number of assembly seats and reserves seven seats for Scheduled Castes and nine seats for Scheduled Tribes.

It seeks to insert new sections 15A and 15B in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 to nominate not more than two members, one of whom shall be a woman, from the community of “Kashmiri Migrants” and one member from “Displaced Persons from Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir” to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.