Hyderabad. The Telangana Assembly passed a bill to increase the percentage of reservation for Scheduled Tribes (ST) and sent it for the approval of the Center five years ago and now the issue has come up for discussion once again.
The delay between Telangana’s ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in increasing the reservation for STs has now become a means of blaming each other.
The issue came into limelight after five years, when Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Bishweshwar Tudu told the Lok Sabha on March 21 that his ministry had not received any proposal from the Telangana government to increase the reservation for STs to 12 per cent. He is Congress MP from Telangana N. Uttam Kumar was replying to a question from Reddy.
After this statement, TRS had demanded immediate removal of the Union Minister from the post. The TRS also gave notice to move a privilege motion against him for “misleading” the Lok Sabha.
The TRS said that the state government not only made a resolution but the assembly also passed a bill to increase the reservation for Scheduled Tribes from 6.8 per cent to 10 per cent, after which it was sent to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
The TRS government, which is already in a heated argument with the Center over paddy procurement, has stepped up its attack on the BJP.
In the year 2017, the Telangana Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a bill to increase the reservation quota for backward Muslims and STs to 12 and 10 per cent respectively.
The entire opposition, except the BJP, which strongly opposed the proposal to increase the quota for Muslims, supported the Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Reservation Bill, 2017.
The bill is related to increasing the quota for socially and economically backward people among Muslims under the Backward Class (E) category from the existing four percent to 12 percent.
The state government sent the bill to the Center for the assent of the President with a request to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution, as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.
This bill has increased the total reservation in Telangana to 62 percent.
The Supreme Court has fixed a ceiling of 50 per cent on all reservations, both at the Center and in the states, which is why Telangana seeks exemption through constitutional amendment.
Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao had asked, Tamil Nadu has been implementing 69 percent reservation for two decades. Five to six states are providing more than 50 per cent reservation. How can you deny this to Telangana?
He had also announced that if the Center refuses to accede to Telangana’s request, the state government will approach the Supreme Court.
KCR had argued that there is no constitutional bar on providing more than 50 per cent reservation.
He had said that 90 percent of Telangana’s population is Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Minorities, so the state definitely needs more than 50 percent reservation.
The TRS had promised during the 2014 elections that the quota for Backward Classes (E) and Scheduled Tribes in the state would be increased in proportion to their population.
KCR had made it clear in the assembly that he would not request the Center but would fight for the inclusion of the new quota in the 9th schedule.
However, the whole matter has been hanging in the balance since then. The TRS, which came back to power in the 2018 elections, blames the central government for this. He says that despite repeated requests from the state government, the Center has kept the issue pending.
With the assembly elections to be held in the state next year, the issue of ST reservation has again come into the limelight.
The state government has recently announced to recruit 80,000 posts. TRS is telling the tribals that they are being deprived of the opportunity because of the Centre.
However, this is not the first time a Union minister has told Parliament that the Center has not received any proposal from the Telangana government.
In December last year, Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment A. Narayanaswamy had told the Lok Sabha that the Center has not received any proposal from the state government, seeking an increase in reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Telangana according to their population percentage.
This time BJP has given a new twist to the whole debate by seeing the increasing pressure of TRS.
Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy said that the Center will not interfere or oppose if the Telangana government brings a proposal to increase reservation for STs.
Reddy, MP from Telangana, has now put the ball in the court of the state government and said that the states have the right to increase the reservation.
This has triggered a dispute between the two sides.
Telangana Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavati Rathod has accused the BJP of doing opportunistic politics on the issue.
On Kishan Reddy’s statement, he said, if the issue of reservation comes under the purview of the state, then let the Center make an official announcement.
He said that if Kishan Reddy is committed to the welfare of STs, he should use his position to ask the Center to announce it officially.
He said, both Congress and BJP use tribals for their vote bank politics. Tribals will teach a lesson to BJP. BJP is not only resorting to opportunistic politics but is also adopting divide and rule policy.
Satyavati Rathod pointed out that after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the ST population in Telangana increased to 9.08 per cent but the reservation remained the same.
State Finance Minister T. Harish Rao said that the BJP government at the Center has insulted the tribals by denying the fact that the state government has not sent any proposal to increase the ST reservation.
He said, the assembly unanimously passed a resolution to increase the ST reservation and sent it to the Centre. The Chief Minister wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice in this regard and Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavati Rathod and officials had written several letters to the Center in this regard.
—AnyTV News
read this also – Click to read the news of your state / city before the newspaper