Riled by govt order, BCs stage dharna against quota cut

​Hyderabad: Several BC organisations staged protests at Collectorates on Friday against the ordinance of the government decreasing the BC reservations from 34 per cent to 22 per cent in the Panchayat elections. They demanded that the government continue the old 34 per cent reservation system in the elections.

BC leaders including R Krishnaiah, G Krishna, N Venkatesh, Anji and others participated in the dharna at Hyderabad Collectorate on Friday. The BC organisations demanded that the government bring constitution amendment bill in Parliament to increase the reservation of BCs. Krishnaiah said that as per the reservations provided to BCs by government, the Sarpanch post can be given to 3,146 STs, 2,113 to STs, 2,345 to BCs and 6,378 to women. As per the population of 56 per cent, the BCs should get 6,822 out of 12,751 Sarpanch posts but only 2,345 posts were being allocated. He alleged that the BCs were deceived with wrong figures.

Krishnaiah said that it is injustice to BC community because the government instead of increasing reservations from 34 per cent to 56 per cent, it is reducing it. He said that even during the Congress rule, the Supreme Court gave same orders but the then Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy held discussions with the BC leaders and filed a review petition in Supreme Court and got stay and took up elections with 34 per cent reservations to BCs. “There is rationale behind disallowing reservations beyond 50 per cent in education and employment because it would affect the merit but there is no rationale in bringing sealing in political reservations,” said Krishnaiah.