BC bodies condemn draft municipal bill

Dharna Chowk: Protesting against tabling a bill to reduce BC reservations in forthcoming municipal elections, BC Welfare Association and BC castes JAC jointly staged protest here on Thursday. Telangana BC Welfare Association president Jajula Krishna, chairman of BC castes JAC Kundaram Ganesh Chari and other BC leaders participated in the protest.

Speaking to media during the protest, Jajula Krishna expressed concerns that BC reservations were being reduced citing Supreme Court ruling. He demanded state government to conduct municipal elections as per the previous municipal law and give 33 per cent reservations to BCs in municipal polls.

He called upon BC ministers and MLAs to oppose the proposed municipal bill in Assembly. He warned of serious consequences if the BC reservations are reduced even by one per cent.

He alleged that Telangana government has been deliberately reducing BC reservations citing Supreme Court ruling that total reservations should not go beyond 50 per cent, while the states such as Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have implemented 60 per cent reservations to BCs.

Citing the case of Maharashtra, he said that Mumbai High Court supported 16 per cent reservations to Marathas, taking the total reservations to 68 per cent. To clear the legal hurdles, the state government should take the 'Samagra Kutumba Survey', which has precise details of BC population as basis, he said. Krishna said that it was the responsibility of the state government to ensure that there were no legal hurdles.

BC vidyavanthulavedika convener Dr Vijya Bhaskar, BC federation president S Durgaiah Goud, BC student association president Kulkacharla Srinivas, central committee member of BC student association Thatikonda Vikram Goud, BC writers' association president Shekhar, BC leaders G Mahesh Yadav, Chandu, Ranjit Mudhiraj, Rakesh, Bhaskar and others participated in the protest.