New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed two bills granting reservation to the Kashmiri Pandit migrants and displaced people from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Both the bills -- the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023 -- were passed by the Lok Sabha on December 6.
Home Minister Amit Shah, during a discussion in the Rajya Sabha, said, "Earlier there were 37 seats in Jammu, now after the new delimitation commission, there are 43 seats. Earlier there were 46 in Kashmir, now there are 47."
"In Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, 24 seats have been reserved since PoK is ours and no one can take it from us," he added.
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 other bill seeks to amend the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
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.