Hyderabad: The state of Telangana is gearing up for local elections with a new decision to allocate 42% of spots to Backward Classes (BCs). This change was formalized in Government Order No. 9, announced by J Buddha Prakash, the State Secretary of the BC Welfare Department.
The Panchayat Raj, along with the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Departments, have been directed to ensure this BC quota is applied in local government bodies like gram panchayats, mandal parishads, zilla parishads, and all municipal bodies across the state.
In response to this order, the State Election Commission (SEC) organized a meeting with top officials, including Chief Secretary K Ramarkrishna Rao and DGP Jitendar, to discuss the state’s election readiness. Following these discussions, the SEC will reveal the election schedule.
Officials highlighted that the Panchayat Raj Department will prepare a report on how the BC quota will be distributed in villages and mandals. The SEC will examine this report before officially announcing the elections.
With the Telangana High Court setting a September 30 deadline for the elections, the government is finalizing its plans. They intend to present all necessary details to the court, demonstrating their preparation and the implementation of the BC quota.
The state government is also set to explain to the High Court why they issued the quota order. This comes after their requests to pass two Bills to increase BC reservations were denied by the central government. These Bills are currently pending approval from the Governor and awaiting Presidential assent. The government hopes the High Court will support their efforts to conduct elections smoothly.
On August 6, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy protested in Delhi at Jantar Mantar, urging for Presidential approval of the BC reservation Bills. He accused the central government, led by the BJP, of blocking them, labeling it as ‘anti-OBC’. The Congress party had earlier promised to raise BC reservations to 42%, from the previous 23%, during the 2023 assembly elections.
The state has also issued detailed guidelines for implementing these reservations in elections for MPTC, ZPTC, MPP president, and Zilla Parishad chairman roles. N Sridhar, the Principal Secretary to the Panchayat Raj Department, stated that the SEC, Panchayat Raj Director, and District Collectors are responsible for enforcing these reservations.
The order specifies that the 42% BC reservation is based on recent caste census data, while SC and ST reservations will follow the 2011 census data. Additionally, reservations for women will be included within the BC, SC, and ST quotas, not exceeding 50% per community.
