On Monday the April 24, the Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, currently on a visit here essentially to attend the NITI Ayog Governing Council meeting which was presided by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, called on the Prime Minister and discussed with him various issues of interest to his state.
In the course of his meeting Mr. Modi, the Telanagana Chief Minister sought the help of the Prime Minister in implementing the enhanced quota for Muslims and STs in the State.
Besides submitting a memorandum to the Prime Minister requesting the Centre to release outstanding funds for various schemes to the State of Telangana, the Chief Minister raised the issue of bifurcation of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad by setting up separate High Courts for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh States.
According to the Telangana Rashtrha Samithi (TRS) leaders here, the Chief Minister also sought an early introduction of a Bill to increase the existing Assembly seats in Telangana as proposed in the AP Reorganisation Act.
As per Section 26 of the Act, there shall be an increase of Assembly seats from the existing 119 to 153 in Telangana and from existing 175 to 225 in AP. This, however, comes with a rider that any increase is subject to Article 170 of the Constitution, which has already put a cap on fresh delimitation of Assembly segments till 2026.
The Telangana Chief Minister briefed the PM on the Bill passed recently by the state government increasing quota in jobs and education for Muslims from 4 per cent to 12 per cent as per the TRS election promise and from 6 per cent to 10 per cent for STs.
The BJP leadership has opposed reservations for Muslims saying that quotas based on religion were unconstitutional.
Mr Rao touched on pending issues related to the state with the PM. These included release of more funds for development of backward classes, irrigation and other projects, bifurcation issues like division of High Court, those listed in the 9th and 10th schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act, sharing of Krishna waters, among others.
On April 16 a special session of the Telangana Assembly passed a Bill seeking to steeply hike reservations to Muslims and scheduled tribes and thereby raising the overall quota to above 50 per cent.
In support of the Bill, Mr. Rao had argued that the move was not based on religion, but on social backwardness and quantifiable data on the composition of the population in the new state.
“We promised it during the 2014 elections and won the mandate of the people. The Bill is a logical step to fulfil the promise,” he had said.
The Telangana Reservation Bill (Backward Class, SC & ST Reservation Bill 2017), seeks to hike the quote for backward Muslims under BC-E category to 12 per cent from the existing 4 per cent. The reservation for STs is proposed to be increased to 10 per cent from 6 per cent now.
The proceedings were disrupted by protests by the five BJP legislators and two Telugu Desam members. They BJP members were suspended from the House after Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao moved a motion seeking their suspension.
EOM
