Telangana opposition parties fume over ordinance reducing BC quota in Panchayat polls

Opposition parties in Telangana were up in the arms against the state government over its recent ordinance reducing the reservation to Backward Classes in the upcoming Panchayat Raj elections to 23% from 34% and sought its immediate withdrawal.

They also demanded that the government raised the reservations to BC on pro rata basis in terms of population.

In a letter to the Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, TPCC President N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the government should implement the High Court order on conducting caste-wise enumeration of BCs along with a socio-economic survey on their conditions.

"The Congress party disagrees with your (KCR's) government's ordinance reducing the BC reservation quota on the pretext of Supreme Court verdict (of overall capping quota at 50%). The entire BC community in Telangana was agitated about reduction in the reservations for BCs in sarpanch and local body elections. The Congress party categorically states that reservations for BCs in local body elections must be commensurate with the population percentage of the community," he said in the letter.

Telangana unit of BJP has also demanded that a survey be conducted to ascertain the exact population of BCs in the state and reservations in Panchayat polls be fixed accordingly.

"We demand an explanation from the state government.. The same government and the same Chief Minister (KCR) on several occasions in the Assembly said 54% were BCs, 16% STs and 10% SCs in the state," Telangana BJP President K Laxman said.

"During the past 30 years there was 34% reservation for BCs in local body elections. The BC population has been increasing and on one hand there is a demand to increase the reservation for BC as per their population.

He sought to know the logic behind reducing the reservation from 34% to 22 (23)%.

As per the new reservation policy, Laxman said, as many as 1,500 panchayats would be out of the quota for BC candidates. Earlier, the CPITelangana unit had also demanded that the TRS took steps to ensure 34% quota to BCs in the forthcoming Panchayat Raj, Cooperative Societies and Municipal polls.

The Telangana government had on December 17 promulgated an ordinance restricting reservations to a maximum of 50% for SC, ST and OBC to enable conduct of elections to Panchayat Raj institutions in the state.

The Ordinance resulted in amendments to the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act 2018 pertaining to the total reservations in Panchayat Raj elections.

The Hyderabad high court had directed the state government to complete the election process for the members of gram panchayats and the offices of the sarpanch in the gram panchayats within 3 months from October 11.

The term of local bodies ended on August 1 this year.