Bring mountainous areas of Uttarakhand under 5th schedule of constitution: Joshi

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun

 Congress leader Mahesh Joshi has demanded that the government should bring the mountainous areas of Uttarakhand under the fifth schedule of the Constitution.

This will help in ensuring that the number of Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the mountainous areas of the State are not reduced after the new delimitation exercise, he said.  Joshi, who also is the chief spokesperson of the Chinhhit Rajya Andolankari Sanyukt Samiti said that at present the basis of the delimitation is population and by this criteria the number of Vidhan Sabha seats in the mountainous areas of the State is set to decrease.

He opined that the basic concept of the creation of a separate State of Uttarakhand was Jal, Jungle and Jamin and this can be protected only by implementing the fifth schedule.

 He said that before 1972, the fifth schedule was implemented in the mountainous areas and schedule district act was enforced in the hilly areas from 1874. Joshi said that till 1995 the people of mountainous areas of the then Uttar Pradesh were eligible for six per cent reservation in jobs. He said that the status of scheduled tribe is given on the basis of the norms set by the Justice MB Lokur committee and the natives of the mountainous areas of Uttarakhand fulfil all the norms.