The Telangana Jana Samithi organised a dharna near Indira Park here on Saturday, demanding withdrawal of the ordinance reducing reservation for Backward Classes in local body elections from 34 to 23%.
Party president M. Kodandaram, who addressed the gathering, warned that the reduction would not be limited to the coming gram panchayat elections but continued in elections to Mandal Parishad and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies in future.
He said the government aimed at checking the growth of political leadership among BCs by issuing the ordinance. The government had, however, ignored that political leadership would be strengthened only with people’s participation in politics. Political reservations were a necessity for safeguarding democracy.
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National Backward Classes Welfare Association president and former MLA R. Krishnaiah recalled that gram panchayat elections were held in the past with 34% quota for BCs. But Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao reduced them out of vengeance for BCs. The reduction of quota curtailed the chance of 1,500 people belonging to BCs to get elected sarpanches.
He decried the attempts of the TRS government to construct community buildings for caste groups. Instead, what was required was school buildings. He called for a legal battle against the ordinance.