Will pass law for SC/ST quota hike ordinance in next Assembly session: CM Bommai
Hubballi (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said his government will take every measure to offer legal protection to the ordinance increasing the reservation for SCs and STs in educational institutions and government jobs.
The ordinance increasing the reservation for Scheduled Castes from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and Scheduled Tribes from 3 per cent to 7 per cent, got Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot's assent on Sunday.
After it was approved by the Governor, it was made public through a gazette notification.
The gazette notification said the number of castes increased drastically after the inclusion of some more communities. The total population of SCs and STs in the state went up by leaps and bounds, it added.
"There is a need to get approval of both the Houses, which we will do in the next (Assembly) session," Bommai said.
Regarding a few other recommendations on reservation, the Chief Minister said those proposals are pending before various commissions. Once the report comes, the government will take action, he added.
Bommai declined to comment on the possibility of removing or adding communities from the reservation categories saying that such decisions have to be taken within the framework of law and the Constitution.
The Karnataka government brought the ordinance for SCs and STs in accordance with the Justice Nagamohan Das Committee recommendation to increase the quota.
The move is seen as an attempt by the BJP government in Karnataka to woo the SC/ST communities ahead of assembly elections, which are about six months away.
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India has agreed already to drop its tariffs to nothing: President Trump
New York/Washington, May 7 (PTI): US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said India has “agreed” to drop its high tariffs “to nothing”.
“I mean, India as an example, has one of the highest tariffs in the world. We’re not going to put up with that, and they’ve agreed already to drop it. They’ll drop it to nothing. They’ve already agreed. They would have never done that for anybody else but me,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump and visiting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke to reporters as they met in the Oval Office to discuss the US-Canada trade.
“So we’re going to put down some numbers and we’re going to say our country is open for business and they’re going to come in and they’re going to pay for the privilege of being able to shop in the United States of America. It’s very simple. It’s very simple,” he added.
In the past, Trump has called India “tariff king” and a “big abuser”.
Last month, Trump had said that negotiations with India over a bilateral trade deal are “coming along great” and he thinks “we’ll have a deal with India”.
