National agitation for 50% quota to BCs mooted

Vidyanagar: National BC Welfare Association leaders have decided to start a national movement to pressurise the central government to hike BC reservations up to 50 per cent based on their population.

This was decided at a meeting organised by the association with several leaders from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and other states to discuss the action plan on BC reservations, at BC Bhavan here on Sunday.

Several political parties such as Congress, DMK, AIDMK, BSP, SP, RJD, Janata Dal, TRS, NCP, Shiv Sena and others supported the private BC reservation bill tabled by YSR Congress party recently in the Parliament. The meeting discussed ways to take support from other parties as well, R Krishnaiah, national president of BC Welfare Association, told the media.

R Krishnaiah appealed to the BJP to support the BC reservation bill. Praising several BC-friendly initiatives of BJP such as electing PM from BC community, appointing new Governors from BC communities, giving constitutional validity to National BC Commission and others, he demanded that the party extend its support to BC reservation bill as well.

The meeting decided to conduct public meetings in states such as Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal and other states and form state committees by September end as part to start national movement in this regard, he said. BC leaders Karunakaran, Gujja Krishna, Dr Pullanna, Bandappa, Kasak, Shiva, Mallikarjuna Yadav, Srinivas, Sujan Goud, Ranga Swamy and others attended the meeting.