Telangana Reservation Bill aimed at enhancing the quota for backward sections in Muslims under BC-E category from existing 4 to 12 percent and Scheduled Tribes from 6 to 10 percent taking the total reservations to 62 percent has been passed unanimously here on Sunday during a special one day session.
While Congress, Majlis and the Left supported the Bill, five members of BJP have been suspended from the session for protesting in the well of the house.
Assuring the house that the state government will take all necessary steps to get Centre's nod, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who introduced the reservation bill in the house said that care has been taken to replicate the Tamilnadu reservation hike bill word to word to escape legal scrutiny. “Centre will have to give assent as 69 per cent quota is already under implementation in Tamil Nadu,” KCR stated.
However Congress differed with KCR, arguing that the increased reservations incorporated in the 9th Schedule of Constitution was specific to Tamilnadu and can’t be applied to Telangana. “The government very well knows that its claim holds no water, but this is only to divert the attention of Muslims in the state who are highly backward in education and employment,” Congress MLA Jeevan Reddy said.
BJP Floor leader Kishan Reddy terming the Bill communal said that the Bill is against spirit of Indian constitution. “Even Dr Ambedkar said that there should be reservations when there is discrimination among castes, in the case of Muslims there is no such caste system,” Kishan Reddy argued. BJP said that the fate of the present bill will be similar to that of earlier Bills in the court of law and the party would seek legal recourse.
The Assembly also passed two more bills, the state specific GST Bill and Heritage Bill incorporating heritage status to for all the structures in the state, not just Hyderabad which was covered by the earlier legislation.
Published 16 April 2017, 10:54 IST