As govt braces for PR polls, efforts on to hike BC quota

Hyderabad: The State government is gearing up for the Panchayat Raj elections as the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday directed the officials to prepare an action plan to increase BC reservations in local body elections.

The Chief Minister chaired a review on Monday in the Secretariat on increasing the BC reservations in connection with Panchayat elections. The CM advised the officials to disclose the issues related to the implementation of reservations in Panchayat elections in the State and their increase in the upcoming elections.

The officials explained to the Chief Minister the procedure followed during the last Panchayat elections and the preparation for the upcoming Panchayat elections. As the caste enumeration has already been approved, the Chief Minister asked the officials how it would be if Panchayat elections were to be conducted based on that and how much time would be taken for that.

The officials explained that the caste census was conducted in Karnataka in 2015, in Bihar in 2023, and the details of the caste census in Andhra Pradesh have not been released yet. The caste enumeration format adopted by the Central government in 2011 has 53 columns, adding three more columns to it would take at least five and a half months.

The Chief Minister directed them to prepare the necessary plan to conduct the elections as soon as possible so that the funds coming from the Central government to the local bodies do not stop along with the increase in BC reservations. There was a long discussion on the issue of increasing reservations in the meeting.

Former minister K Jana Reddy explained the procedures followed from the Union, State to the Panchayat elections held in Telangana, the cases filed in the Supreme Court on BC reservations in the local body elections of various states, their judgments and consequences.

Later, Revanth Reddy said that a timeline should be drawn up for the implementation of reservations in Panchayat elections, and if there were any doubts, experts of the Panchayat Raj department should be consulted, as well as legal issues should be discussed with the advocate general. The officials were directed to study the other states which were taking up the issue of reservations.

The Chief Minister said that if a report is prepared on these issues soon, he would hold another meeting before the Assembly sessions and take a final decision on this issue.