Hyderabad, June 20: Telangana
Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Chief Spokesperson Dr. Sravan Dasoju
said that the TRS Government was doing gross injustice with Backward
Classes in Telangana State in the forthcoming Pachayat Raj elections by
taking up reservation of seats in a scientific manner.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday,
Sravan said that TRS Government was just trying to please the BC
communities by distributing sheeps, fish or other tools to make them
continue their ancestral professions. However, at political level, Chief
Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has been conspiring to
suppress the BCs. He said the erroneous reservation of seats for BCs
was aimed at preventing their political empowerment. Instead of taking
actual percentage of BC population into consideration to reserve the
seats, the State Government has been banking on various estimations to
deny BCs their due share in power in Panchayat Raj elections.
Sravan
said there were lot of contradictions in the figures pertaining to
actual population of BCs in Telangana. Estimating the BC population to
be 34% in 1999, same figure was used in implementation of reservation
policy. However, only 34% seats have been reserved for BCs in the new
Panchayat Raj Act although the Intensive Household Survey conducted by
the State Government in August 2014 has estimated the BC population to
be 52%. Strangely, he said the same government has estimated the BC
population as 37% while presenting the Bill to enhance quota from 4% to
12% for Muslims under BC-E. "Which number should we trust? Is it 34%,
52% or 37%?" he asked.
The
Congress leader said BCs are not a single community/group. They are
referred to a category comprising of 113 communities divided into A, B,
C, D and E groups. Therefore, he said reservation of seats without
categorisation would cause huge injustice to various small communities
which never got any representation in any of the elected bodies in the
State. The existing 29% reservation is sub-divided among five groups of A
- 7% (Aboriginal Tribes, Vimukthijatis, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic
Tribes, Orphans etc.,); B - 10% (Vocation Groups); C - 1% (SC converts
into Christianity); D - 7% (Other Backward Classes) and E - 4% (Socially
and educationally backward classes among Muslims). Therefore, in a
broader perspective, the categorisation of reserved seats would benefit
all communities in a broader manner and increase their representation in
Panchayat Raj institutions. With 34% reservation, the quota for BC-A
will increase to 8.2%; BC-B to 11.7%; BC-C to 1.2%; BC-D to 8.2% and
BC-E to 4.8%. He said KCR talks of enhancing Muslims quota to 12%.
However, by not agreeing for categorisation, he is preventing the
increase in BC-E quota from 4% to even 4.8%.
Sravan
pointed out that of 113 communities in all five categories, there were
several communities which never got any representation in any elected
posts. Citing figures of last elections, he said of 441 ZPTC, 196 were
reserved for BCs. However, as many as 88 BC communities had no
representation. Similarly, of 434 MPPs, 82 communities had no
representation in 206 BC reserved seats. Of 6,490 MPTCs, 3267 were
reserved for BCs and no one from 49 communities got elected to the post.
Likewise, of 4,147 elected from BC reserved seats out of 8,692
Sarpanches, there was no representation from 57 communities. There is
not a single councillor from 66 communities (898/1453) and 90
communities among Corporators (228/408). Of 55 Municipal Chairmen, 36
were reserved for BCs. Therefore, 99 BC communities had no
representative on these posts.
Just
20 out of 119 MLAs (16.8%), 12 out of 40 MLCs and only 3 out of 17 Lok
Sabha MPs belong to Backward Classes although their population is
estimated to be around 52%, Sravan said.
Therefore,
Sravan demanded that the State Government conduct door-to-door
enumeration of BC population and implement categorisation in BC reserved
seats in Panchayat Raj elections.
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