Latest news with #ScheduledTribes
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Promotion of state govt staff sets in motion after cabinet nod
Bhopal: As the Madhya Pradesh cabinet paved way for the promotion of govt employees after nine years, the departments will soon start the promotion process based on the cabinet decision. Meanwhile, SAPAKS is preparing to challenge the new promotion rules in court. The govt is also aware of the issue and has directed the departments to expedite the promotion of govt employees, as per the rules cleared in the cabinet meeting. The process will commence soon after the departments receive the notification from the general administration department in this regard. Chief minister Mohan Yadav chaired the cabinet meeting held on Tuesday in the secretariat. The cabinet approved the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Promotion Rules, 2025, ensuring the representation and protection of the interests of the reserved categories. Provisions include a 20% reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 16% for Scheduled Castes (SC). SC and ST public servants will also have the opportunity for promotion based on merit. SAPAKS, an organisation of general category, OBC, and minority govt employees, president KS Tomar said, "We have no option but to challenge the rules in court." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Eat 1 Teaspoon Every Night, See What Happens A Week Later! [Video] getfittoday Undo After the cabinet meeting, the govt stated that it has been provided that promotion committees may meet in the current year itself to prepare selection lists for the next year's vacancies, i.e., provisions for advance DPCs (Departmental Promotion Committees) have been included. Due weightage is given to seniority, and among senior officials, those obtaining the minimum qualifying marks will be eligible for promotion. For Class I officers, a merit-cum-seniority principle will apply. The rules aim to encourage efficiency, with clear criteria defining ineligibility for promotion. Circumstances under which an official becomes ineligible and the impact of penalties are clearly outlined. Provisions have been made for holding review DPCs for reconsideration of decisions. The new rules eliminate the system of rotation, which will help create more promotional posts. DPCs are empowered to determine the suitability of candidates, the govt stated. The problem for the general category employees is that SC and ST public servants will also have the opportunity for promotion based on merit, in addition to the 20% reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and 16% for Scheduled Castes (SC). The govt is aware of the grounds on which the promotion rules will be challenged in court, and officials mentioned they have also done their homework. The promotion of the state govt employees has been on hold since 2016. Over a lakh of govt employees have retired while waiting to get promotions.
New Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Chhattisgarh government announces eight big decisions
In a Cabinet Meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shri Vishnu Deo Sai at his Civil Lines residence office today, following significant decisions were taken: 1. Cabinet approved a major decision to extend certain educational benefits to communities that have been technically excluded from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes lists. Accordingly, students belonging to the Dihari Korwa, Baghel Kshatriya, Sansari Oraon, and Pabia/Pavia/Paviya communities will be eligible to receive state-funded scholarships and stipends equivalent to those granted to Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, students of the Domra caste will be granted benefits equivalent to those for Scheduled Castes. These communities will also be allowed hostel and ashram admissions within approved seat limits. 2. With the objective to promote renewable energy and provide economic benefits to electricity consumers, the Cabinet has approved state financial aid for the installation of rooftop solar plants under PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. Through the Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company Limited (CSPDCL), beneficiaries will receive both central and state financial support depending on plant capacity (1kW, 2kW, 3kW and above). For example: * For a 1kW system: Total aid of Rs 45,000 (Rs 30,000 from Centre + Rs 15,000 from State) * For a 3kW or higher system: Total aid of Rs 1,08,000 (Rs 78,000 from Centre + Rs 30,000 from State) Similar benefits are proposed for Housing Societies and Residential Welfare Associations. The subsidy amount will be provided to CSPDCL in advance for disbursal to beneficiaries. Targets have been set for installation of 60,000 solar plants in 2025–26 and 70,000 in 2026–27, with respective budgetary implications of Rs 180 crore and Rs 210 crore. CSPDCL will be the implementing agency, and a dedicated bank account will be opened for transparent management of subsidies. Priority for state aid will be given to those whose grid synchronization occurred on or after 1 April 2025. 3. In a landmark move for wildlife conservation and eco-tourism, the Cabinet has approved formation of Chhattisgarh Tiger Foundation Society under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. This self-financed society—on the lines of a similar body functioning in Madhya Pradesh since 1996—will work towards protecting the rapidly declining tiger population in Chhattisgarh (currently estimated at 18–20). It will raise funds through voluntary contributions and will not place any additional burden on the state exchequer. The society will undertake direct conservation efforts, promote eco-tourism through local community involvement, and encourage environmental education, research, and training—creating opportunities for employment while preserving biodiversity. 4. Cabinet has approved the merger of Vivekananda Institute of Social Health, Welfare and Services, Chhattisgarh (VISHWAS)—an allied organisation of the grant-in-aid educational institution Ramkrishna Mission Ashram Narayanpur—into the parent Ashram. 5. In a move to promote horticultural education, the Cabinet has approved the transfer of 100 acres of government land (out of a total 94.290 hectares) in Belgaon, under Saja Tehsil of Bemetara district, free of cost to the Horticulture Department for the establishment of a Horticulture College under the Horticulture University. 6. Cabinet has approved the proposal to transfer ownership of the 'JashPure' brand—under which women's self-help groups in Jashpur district produce traditional items such as herbal and mahua tea—to the state government or the Chhattisgarh State Industrial Development Corporation (CSIDC) to expand market reach and boost marketing efforts. The move is expected to promote agro and food processing units, increase demand for local raw materials, and generate more employment opportunities for tribal women. The trademark transfer will not impose any additional financial burden on the state. 7. Acknowledging the supreme sacrifice of martyred police personnel, the Cabinet has amended Clause 13(3) of the Unified Revised Guidelines–2013 for compassionate appointments. Now, in cases where a police officer is martyred in Naxalite violence, any eligible family member (male or female) may opt for a compassionate appointment in any department across any district or division of the state. Previously, such appointments were generally restricted to the same department or office where the deceased was employed. 8. To ensure systematic exploration and infrastructure development of minor minerals in the state, the Cabinet has approved the draft notification for the establishment of State Mineral Exploration Trust (SMET). Modeled after the National Mineral Exploration Trust of the Government of India, SMET will receive an additional 2% of the royalty revenue from all minor minerals. The fund will be utilized for high-tech exploration, infrastructure development, information systems, logistical support, and human resource development in the mining sector. (This is a press release by the Chhattisgarh government.)
The Hindu
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Bombay High Court stays SC, ST, OBC reservations in minority institutions for class 11 admissions
The Bombay High Court on Thursday (June 12, 2025) stayed the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for the admission of first year of junior college (FYJC) at the minority institutions in Maharashtra. This interim stay is on the Maharashtra government's mandate to minority educational institutions to reserve seats for ST, SC or OBC in the FYJC admissions. Passing the order, a Division Bench of Justices, M.S. Karnik and N.R. Borkar observed, 'Prima facie, we find substance in the submissions advanced by the petitioners for the grant of interim relief. Accordingly, insofar as admission to class 11 is concerned, the mandate of social reservation shall not be made applicable to any seats in minority educational institutions.' The court passed the order on a bunch of petitions moved by Maharashtra Association of Minority Educational Institutions, along with prominent colleges from Solapur and Mumbai such as, Jai Hind, KC College, St. Xavier's, Walchand College of Arts and Science and Hirachand Nemchand College of Commerce, who challenged Maharashtra government's May 6, 2025, government resolution (GR) and called it 'arbitrary' and 'lacking legal authority'. Clause 11 of the GR issued by the School Education Department, permits vacant seats under the minority quota to be filled through centralised admission process, subject to applicable social and parallel reservations once intra-minority adjustments are exhausted. It says, 'If admissions are lower than the intake capacity in minority quota, admissions can be given as per interchanging between linguistic and religious minority groups. Even after that, if seats remain vacant, those surrendered vacant seats will be filled based on the centralised admission process where all social and parallel reservations are applicable.' Representing the petitioners, senior advocate, Milind Sathe argued that the Article 15(5) of the Constitution excludes minority educational institutes, aided or unaided, from applicability of reservations for socially and educationally backward classes. He further contended that under Article 30(1) (right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions), the right of admission is exclusively with the management of the institution. Even unfilled minority seats should revert to open category admissions and not be subjected to reservation quotas, he said. The court noted that an earlier High Court ruling had quashed a circular issued by Mumbai University for a similar reservation in minority educational institutions and for that the court had asked the State government to issue a corrigendum for issuing the GR. Government Pleader Neha Bhide submitted that she did not have any instructions from the government to withdraw the resolution or issue a corrigendum. 'The right of the minority community is not being touched by the GR. The minority community can fill up all the seats that they have. It is only at the stage when the seats remain unfilled, and the seats are surrendered that the social reservation comes into place. The reservation would be only for the surrendered seats and this is not a case which violates constitutional mandate.' The Bench noted that it found merit in the arguments presented by the educational institutes and based on that, it decided to grant an interim stay on the clause of the May 6 GR. It further directed the State government to file its affidavit as response to the petitions withing four weeks and kept the matter for further hearing on August 6.
The Hindu
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
In forest rights push, Centre sanctions over 300 FRA cells to ‘facilitate' implementation
In a first since the Forest Rights Act (FRA) came into being in 2006, the Union government has started funding structural mechanisms to 'facilitate' the implementation of the law meant to give forest rights to Scheduled Tribes and forest-dwelling communities. Implementation of the FRA, for the last 19 years, has been solely the domain of State and union territory governments. Under the Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyaan (DAJGUA), a Central scheme, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has so far sanctioned the setting up of 324 district-level FRA cells across 18 States and union territories implementing the forest rights law. In addition, State-level FRA cells have been sanctioned for 17 of these States and union territories. The rules governing the operation of these cells flow from the DAJGUA programme and not the principal legislation of the FRA - The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. This law mandates the State government to set up the structure for processing forest rights claims, which includes Gram Sabha Forest Rights Committees (FRCs), Sub-Divisional Level Committees (SDLCs), District Level Committees (DLCs), and State Monitoring Committees. Activists' concern With the new FRA cells being set up through the DAJGUA programme, forest rights activists and experts have raised concerns of this being a 'parallel FRA mechanism outside of FRA's purview'. A government official told The Hindu, 'These FRA cells will have no role in interfering with decisions made by the Gram Sabha, Sub-Divisional Level Committees, District Level Committees, or State government departments under the FRA. They will merely assist claimants and Gram Sabhas to prepare all paperwork for the FRA claims and assist with data management'. The DAJGUA was launched in October 2024 and brings together 25 interventions of 17 line ministries for targeted implementation in over 68,000 tribal-dominated villages. One component of the DAJGUA programme is to speed up FRA implementation. The operational guidelines for DAJGUA mandate the FRA cells to help with 'quick disposal' of pending claims, especially ones that have been held up even after the District Level Committees' approval. According to the last available progress report from March 2025, 14.45% of the 51.11 lakh FRA claims across 21 States/union territories remain pending. Of the around 43 lakh claims that have been disposed of, over 42% were rejected. The highest number of district FRA cells sanctioned so far has been in Madhya Pradesh, where 55 have been approved. This is followed by 30 in Chhattisgarh, 29 in Telangana, 26 in Maharashtra, 25 in Assam, and 24 in Jharkhand. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand are among the States with the least FRA pendency, but in Assam, over 60% of claims are pending and in Telangana, around 50.27% claims are pending. While the rules framed under the DAJGUA mandate the FRA cells to operate under the State government's machinery, the cells themselves are being funded by the Centre through Grants-in-aid General, as per sanction orders for some of them in States like Assam, Himachal Pradesh, and Odisha, seen by The Hindu. The guidelines provide a budget of ₹8.67 lakh for each FRA cell at the district level, and ₹25.85 lakh for each State-level FRA cell. Significant departure This marks a significant departure from how Union governments have handled the issue of FRA implementation ever since the law was framed. So far, when confronted with the question of forest rights in Parliament, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has maintained that the implementation was mandated 'primarily' to States and that it keeps 'exhorting' all governments to abide by the law. Apart from this, the Tribal Affairs Ministry has traditionally restricted itself to funding training and capacity-building programmes for State government officials at the centre of the FRA implementation, issuing advisories and missives to State governments, and compiling monthly progress reports on FRA data sent by the States. The DAJGUA guidelines clearly spell out that the FRA cells will deal with all matters of FRA implementation 'as directed' by the State Tribal Welfare departments and district administrations and that it will help both claimants and Gram Sabhas to prepare the claims paperwork for presentation to the Forest Rights Committees. This includes gathering evidence, certificates, Gram Sabha resolutions and putting together a claims file; assisting the Gram Sabha in conversion of forest and un-surveyed villages and habitations into revenue villages; completing demarcation of forest lands already vested to claimants; facilitating the digitisation of records and their feeding into the relevant portals. While this is the first time such FRA cells are being proposed by the Union government to speed up FRA implementation, the Odisha government has been using a similar mechanism for a couple of years now that operated as facilitators from outside of the statutory structure that processes FRA claims, according to forest rights researcher Tushar Dash. 'But the response to such a system has been mixed so far. There are concerns that many of the tasks assigned to the FRA cells already come under the functions of statutory committees set up under the FRA leading to confusion at the ground level on who to approach for what,' Mr. Dash told The Hindu. He further explained that creating more committees or cells 'will not address the structural problems in implementing the FRA'. 'It is known that a large reason for pending claims is that Sub-Divisional Level Committees and District Level Committees don't meet to decide on claims as often as they should. Secondly, there is the problem of Forest departments sitting on claims even after the approval of the DLCs,' Mr. Dash said.
Time of India
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘Deplorable hostels, delayed scholarships': Rahul Gandhi writes letter to PM Modi; demands action on issues of students
Rahul Gandhi writes letter to PM Modi (Image credits: ANI) NEW DELHI: Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi , wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday highlighting two major issues that he says are obstructing educational opportunities for 90 per cent of students belonging to marginalised communities. In the letter dated June 10, Gandhi addressed the poor conditions in residential hostels of students from backward communities and delays in their post-matric scholarships. "Firstly, the conditions in residential hostels for students from Dalit, ST, EBC, OBC and minority communities are deplorable," the Congress leader said. Recalling his visit to the Ambedkar Hostel in Darbhanga, Bihar , he said students had shared several concerns about the state of the facilities. These included overcrowded rooms where 6–7 students were forced to share a single space, unhygienic toilets, unsafe drinking water, no proper mess facilities, and a complete lack of access to libraries or the internet. Gandhi also drew attention to the severe delays in disbursing post-matric scholarships to those those from marginalised communities. He cited the example of Bihar, where the scholarship portal had remained non-functional for three years, resulting in no student receiving aid during that period. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Classic Solitaire , Built for Desktop Play Solitaire Download Undo "Even thereafter, the number of Dalit students receiving scholarships fell by nearly half, from 1.36 lakh in FY23 to 0.69 lakh in FY24. Students further complain that the scholarship amounts are insultingly low," he added. Calling for immediate action, Gandhi urged the government to audit all hostels for students from Dalit, Scheduled Tribes (ST), Economically Backward Class (EBC), Other Backward Classes (OBC), and minority communities and allocate adequate funds to ensure proper infrastructure, sanitation, food, and academic support. He also emphasised the need for the timely disbursement of post-matric scholarships and an increase in the amounts awarded. Gandhi said that although he cited Bihar as an example in his letter, such failures are prevalent all across the country.
