Khadki Cantonment Board to seek legal opinion to finalise SC ward for poll

PUNE: The Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) will seek legal opinion for finalising the ward to be reserved for scheduled caste candidate in the coming cantonment elections. This decision was taken at the special cantonment board meeting held on Tuesday.
Brig Anurag Bhasin, president of the board, announced this decision at the meeting. Chief executive officer K J S Chauhan said that two members voiced their opinion that the population of scheduled caste and scheduled tribe in a ward must be combined while deciding whether the ward is to be reserved for them or not.A ward having 12% or more such population is reserved for them. If the opinion of the two members is considered then ward 5 has the highest population of SC and ST.
Chauhan stated that it was, however, found that ward 1 was reserved for SC candidate for the previous cantonment election held in 2008. This ward has the highest number of SC population even today. In 2008, the combined population of SC and ST was not taken into account to decide on reservation. "As a result the president has directed us to take a legal opinion on it," he said.
The KCB had earlier held a special cantonment board meeting on August 20, 2013 when it was decided that ward number 4 represented by sitting vice-president Manish Anand was to be reserved for SC. But he had opposed it claiming that the ward does not have such a high SC population.
The tenure of the present board has been extended to June 5, 2014.