BCs protest reduction in quota for polls
Musheerabad: Condemning the reduction of BC reservations from the existing 34 percent to 24 percent for Panchayatraj elections, national BC welfare association staged a protest at Dharna Chowk on Sunday. A large number of BCs coming from various districts participated in the protest. National president of BC welfare association R Krishnaiah, and former minister Chittaranjan Das participated in the protest.
Krishnaiah alleged that an attempt was being made by the State government to keep BCs away from politics. As part of the design, an ordinance was issued by the State government to reduce BC reservations to minimize the role of BCs in the politics, he said. Similar attempts would be made in future to reduce BC reservations in education and jobs as well, he said. Contradicting the State government’s explanation that reservations were reduced to keep in line with Supreme Court ruling in this regard, he questioned whether they had implemented all the Supreme Court rulings in the past. He demanded the State government to accord constitutional status to BC reservations.
Former minister Chittaranjan Das termed the government’s ordinance to reduce BC quota in elections as an insult to two crore BCs living in the State. What BCs need is more political empowerment instead of buffaloes, sheep and fish on subsidy, he said. He urged BC’s to be alert and agitate for their rights.
Other speakers demanded the State government to file a review petition against Supreme Court ruling limiting total reservations to 50 per cent. They demanded the government to hold an all-party meeting and take the team to New Delhi to bring an amendment on reservations. They warned of a BC agitation if concrete steps were not taken by the State government.
Prominent among those participated include vice president of national BC welfare association Gujja Krisha, Neela Venkatesh, Mallesh Yadav, Jaipal Mudhiraj, Naresh Goud, Sathyanarayana, Ananthaiah, Mahender Goud, Rajender, Ram Murthy, Surender and others.