Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday told the Telangana Legislative Council that the State government will enact a legislation on the lines of Tamil Nadu, extending reservations in education and jobs beyond the stipulated ceiling of 50 per cent .
Intervening in the debate on the Appropriation Bill, Mr. Rao said “I know the Supreme Court will stay (reservations to SCs, STs, BCs and minorities in excess of 50 per cent). But, there is a way out. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have given reservations up to 70 per cent. We are also going to do it shortly”.
He recalled that the Tamil Nadu Assembly had adopted a resolution to bring its legislation on reservations within the purview of Ninth Schedule of Constitution to make it beyond the purview of judicial scrutiny. The same was supported by the Central government. “The Telangana government will move a similar resolution in the Assembly and approach the Centre”.
The issue of reservations came up in the Council when Congress MLC Md Ali Shabbir reminded Mr. Rao about the election promise of TRS to implement 12 per cent reservation for minorities. Mr. Rao, in his reply, said he was confident of getting the quota for minorities by the above approach but it will not be given on religious basis. Minorities will be treated as an economic class, he added.
Mr. Rao rejected Mr. Shabbir’s suggestion to seek constitutional protection for Telangana under Article 370 or 371 to protect the State against the danger of exploitation in view of its massive plans of industrialisation. He said it was not good for the State going by the experience of Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East.
He lavished praise on major IT companies for preferring Hyderabad as the destination for Information Technology Investment Region though a strong lobby worked for Gujarat. But, Telangana got a bad name from its private engineering colleges that did not have faculty nor students but claimed tuition fee reimbursement. “Shortly, the colleges will be attached to industry to produce job ready students”.
Mr. Rao promised that the budget unspent this year will be carried forward to the next year.
