Reservation for Youth in Panchayati Raj

The state cabinet on Wednesday gave its green signal for an amendment to the Panchayati Raj Act to provide reservation to youths at village level in the state. Once the new rule is implemented, those in the age group of 21 to 35 will get reservation in all the three tiers of the panchayati raj institutions. Accordingly, in the reserved category of SC/ST/OBC seats, the youth will be given one seat out of three seats. However, this limit would not cross more than two seats in each of these categories. In the general category, one in five seats would be reserved for the youths. However, if the number of seats in the general category are less than five, no reservation could be made for the youth.

The government had to bring in an amendment to Section 19 (a) of the Panchayati Raj Act and it plans to issue an ordinance for giving legal sanctity to the reservation, said a statement. In yet another decision, the government has decided to amend the Cooperatives Act. The amendment would be based on the recommendations of Vaidyanathan committee and the subsequent tripartite agreement among the state, Centre and NABARD. The amendment will help the state government in strengthening the short term co-operative credit societies and credit management with a financial assistance of Rs 450 crore from the Centre.