KCR casual on BC quota hike in PR polls: Congress

​Hyderabad: The Congress on Wednesday lashed out at the Chief Minister for blaming the party in the issues of reservations to the BCs in the local body elections and criticised that the government was trying to cover up its failures. 

Addressing the media separately, PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir, deputy floor leader of Congress in Council Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy and chief official spokesperson Dasoju Sravan took strong objections to the comments being made by the Chief Minister on the Congress. 

Speaking to the media, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was not serious in giving enhanced quota to Backward Classes in Panchayat Raj elections. He said that the Congress has been demanding reservation for BCs in proportionate to their population. He said that the High Court was approached stating that the State Government was giving just 34 per cent reservation for BCs while their population was much higher in the State. Subsequently, the High Court directed the government to conduct elections only after conducting enumeration of BC voters.

 Uttam Kumar Reddy said instead of feeling ashamed over being reprimanded by courts for various wrong decisions, KCR tried to link the case with the Congress party. In this case too, the Chief Minister tried to link the petitioner (Swapna Reddy) with the Congress party. "We don't know who she is" he said adding that the Government is indulging in blame game without following the procedures. "As the TPCC President, I demand that BCs should be given reservation proportionate to their population," he declared.

 The TPCC chief accused KCR of doing nothing to provide BC quota. He said that Chandrasekhara Rao did not even call for an all party meeting on the issue and out of arrogance, he took all one-sided decisions. "Even the new PR Act was passed after suspending all Congress members from the House. KCR had shown no serious commitment towards BCs and after his anti-BC stand got exposed in the court, he is trying to blame the Congress party," he said.

 In a separate press conference LOP in Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir demanded the government to call for an all party meet to discuss the issue. He said even during the Congress regime, cases were filed in the courts to maintain ceiling on reservations at 50 per cent. 

“However, we have convinced the court to give permission to hold the elections with 60 per cent reservations. Though the government has several advisors it was unable to find a solution,” he said. Shabbir said that though the government knows very well that a case was pending in the court on ceiling on reservation, it went on to pass the Panchayat Raj Act which has made provision for reservations more than the ceiling. 

He said that even the government failed to ensure placing the state in the ninth schedule of the Constitution which gives powers to the state to raise the ceiling on reservations. This would affect the reservations to Muslims and STs in other areas. Deputy floor leader of Congress in Council Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that the government has made unilateral policies and gone ahead passing the Panchayat Raj bill.