Kavitha leads protest to seek withdrawal of Government Order on women's quota

Hyderabad, March (IANS) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) legislator K. Kavitha on Friday led a protest by women in Hyderabad against the state government's decision to implement horizontal reservation for women in recruitment and educational institutions without roster points.

The Member of Legislative Council, who led an agitation by Bharat Jagruthi at Dharna Chowk, said that the Congress government's action is against the spirit of 33 per cent reservation for women.

Kavitha, who is the daughter of BRS president and former Telangana chief minister K. Chandarsekhar Rao, said that Bharat Jagruthi will continue its fight till the government withdraws its Government Order (GO) 3 issued by the women and child welfare department.

Holding placards and raising slogans, the women demanded immediate withdrawal of the GO 3 issued last month for implementing horizontal reservation methodology to fill up women's quota as directed by the Supreme Court.

Kavitha said the order would do injustice to women job aspirants, especially from underprivileged sections.

She voiced the apprehension that the order would deprive women of 33.3 per cent jobs in the recruitments being undertaken by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC).

The BRS leader had earlier written letters to top Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge over the issue.

The Telangana State and Subordinate Service Rules provide for the implementation of the rule of reservation to the extent of 33.3 per cent to women in all categories in the matter of direct recruitment for the posts.

In 2022 the Telangana High Court had directed the TSPSC to follow the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Rajesh Kumar Daria Vs Rajasthan Public Service Commission while making appointments in Group -1 Services and to follow the principles of horizontal reservation for women candidates without earmarking any roster points to them.

The Telangana government last month directed TSPSC to follow the direction of the High Court to implement the law laid down by the Supreme Court by implementing 33 per cent reservation for women in all categories in the matter of direct recruitment to the posts horizontally without earmarking any roster points for them in all ongoing recruitments.

Kavitha said when the High Court directed the state government to implement the Supreme Court orders, the then BRS government headed by KCR filed a counter in the High Court in January 2023 saying it cannot take away the rights of women.

However, immediately after coming to power, the Congress government withdrew the petition from the High Court on February 6 without consulting anyone. She asked why the Congress government did not continue the legal battle.

She mentioned that 2.50 lakh job aspirants have already registered themselves on the TSPSC website and one lakh of them are women.

The government is saying that it will provide 2 lakh jobs this year.

This means women should get a minimum of 66,000 jobs.

However, in a rejoinder to Kavitha, the state government stated that it is not correct that injustice is done to women in providing reservation in direct recruitment.

It clarified that orders of the Supreme Court and High Court of Telangana were already under examination since 2022 and a provisional decision was taken in December 2022.

Final orders were issued on February 10 this year.