BC status for Swarankars, Sainis in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: Stirring the caste and religious pot for electoral gains in the upcoming Assembly elections, the Akali-BJP government has tried to woo their majority vote bank of Sikhs by approving the draft of Punjab Anand Marriage Rules, and is once again flirting with the Saini and Swarankar communities by including them in the Backward Classes.

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 10

Stirring the caste and religious pot for electoral gains in the upcoming Assembly elections, the Akali-BJP government has tried to woo their majority vote bank of Sikhs by approving the draft of Punjab Anand Marriage Rules, and is once again flirting with the Saini and Swarankar communities by including them in the Backward Classes.

These decisions were taken in the Punjab Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today. The government also announced a slew of concessions to the poor among the above mentioned communities. These include 15 per cent reservation in jobs as well as in educational institutions; scholarships and stipend meant for BCs; and free domestic power supply of up to 200 units a month.

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The benefits will only be given to those Saini and Swarankar families whose annual income is less than Rs8 lakh per annum. There are 69 castes in the Backward Classes which constitute 22 per cent of the state's population. Sainis constitute 9 per cent of the population mostly settled in Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Anandpur Sahib and Patiala.

A few years ago, the Jats, the dominant community in Punjab, too had raised the demand for getting the Backward Class status, which was also approved by the Cabinet, but its notification has not yet been done.

Brahmin Sabha’s general secretary Bihari Lal Saddi has already started raising demand for the grant of similar benefits to the 40-lakh Brahmin population in the state, claiming that they be declared a minority.

Meanwhile, the government has also decided to allot 5-marla plots to landless people in villages on the village common land (Jumla Mustarka Maalkaan) by amending the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948.

The Punjab Anand Marriage Rules ensure that Sikh marriages registered under the Anand Marriage Act need not be registered again under the Punjab Compulsory Registration of Marriages Act. This has been a long standing demand of the Sikhs – a major vote bank of the Panthic party.

The government also amended the Punjab Minor Mineral Rules that makes the stone crusher policy to regulate the working of crushers and control the prices of sand and aggregate legally tenable.

Another meeting tomorrow

With several bills to be introduced in the ongoing Vidhan Sabha session not yet ready, the government has convened another Cabinet meeting on Monday. These bills will be approved by the Cabinet before being presented in the House.