All party meeting held against reducing BC quota in panchayat polls

Opposition parties in Telangana upping the ante against the State government over its recent ordinance reducing the reservation to Backward Classes in the upcoming Panchayat Raj elections to 22 per cent from 34 per cent, sought its immediate withdrawal.They also demanded that the government raised the reservations to BC communities on a pro-rata basis in terms of population. They decided to lay seige to district collectorates across the State on December 29.

Senior Congress leaders V Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Laxmiah, BJP State president K Laxman, TTDP president L Ramana and several leaders from BC welfare organisations participated in the roundtable organised by All India OBC Federation and Telangana State BC Welfare Association.

Former TPCC chief Ponnala Laxmiah alleged that “after getting to power second time, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has given a gift to BCs with the recent ordinance reducing the reservation for BCs in upcoming Panchayat Raj election”.

He said that the government should implement the High Court order on conducting a caste-wise enumeration of BCs along with a socio-economic survey on their conditions. He criticised that ‘TRS government is creating a conspiracy against backward class population’.He said, “We demanded the government to withdraw the ordinance and implement the High Court orders,” said Laxmiah. Telangana Telugu Desam Party(TTDP) president L Ramana demanded conduct of a survey to ascertain the exact population of BC’s in the State, and reservation in Panchayat polls be fixed accordingly.

He said that the BC population is the State is increasing and the government should increase the reservations. He said that “34 per cent reservation is a constitutional amendment to backward classes populations”. He alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has failed to take all parties meeting on suggestions and appeals from the opposition parties on an ordinance.