50% reservation for women, 13.33 % for OBCs in ZP presidents' posts in Odisha

The Odisha government Saturday proposed 50 per cent of reservation of seats for women and 13.33 per cent for OBC candidates in the coming election for the post of zilla parishad presidents in the state, officials said.

The panchayati raj department issued a draft notification on it during the day. The department has sought objections or suggestions online with regard to allotment of reservations by 5 pm of October 24, they said.

The state government’s draft notification on reservation for OBCs for the post of zilla parishad presidents came in the midst of a row over alleged inadequate quota for the section in comparison to their population ratio in the state.

Of the 30 zilla parishad presidents' posts, four seats each are reserved for OBCs and scheduled castes, 10 for scheduled tribes and 12 seats will remain unreserved, the notification said. The four districts where zilla parishad presidents' posts are reserved for OBCs are Angul, Khurda, Gajapati and Keonjhar.

This makes for 13.33 per cent of reservation for the OBCs, according to the notification. It said that posts will be reserved for SCs in four districts - Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur and Bhadrak. The reservation for SC like the OBCs is 13.33 per cent.

The state government has reserved 10 districts for scheduled tribes candidates in the draft notification. The districts are Balasore, Koraput, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Nabarangapur, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada, Sundergarh and Subarnapur. The reservation for ST is 33.33 %, it said. The zilla parishad presidents' posts in 12 other districts have been grouped under the unreserved category.

The seats are Kalahandi, Kendrapara, Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Nuapada, Puri, Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh and Sambalpur and the ratio in this category is 40 per cent. The seats proposed to be reserved for women are Angul (OBC), Cuttack (SC), Kalahandi (unreserved), Koraput (ST), Khurda (OBC), Ganjam (unreserved), Dhenkanal (unreserved), Nayagarh (ST), Nuapada (unreserved), Bargarh (unreserved), Boudh (unreserved), Bhadrak (SC), Malkangiri (ST), Rayagada (ST) and Subarnapur (ST), the notification said. The list will be finalised on October 29 and submitted to the State Election Commission the following day, it added. P