Cancel BC Ordinance, All-Party Delegation Urge CS

An all-party delegation today submitted a memorandum against the ordinance reducing the BC quota in the panchayat elections.

Congress leader Ponnala Lakshmaiah, BJP leader K Laxman, Telangana TDP leader L Ramana, BC Welfare Association president J Srinivas Goud and Kasani Gnaneshwar met Chief Secretary S K Joshi at the Secretariat and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the ordinance as it would cause a loss to the BCs in the panchayat polls.

Talking to the media later, they alleged that the TRS government was causing injustice to the BCs in the polls. The ordinance reduced the BC quota from 34% to 22.7%, and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao was failing to do justice to the BCs by issuing the ordinance, they said. They said that they had urged Joshi to implement the Panchayat Raj Act in which 34% of seats were earmarked for the backward classes. As per a survey the BC population was put at 52% in the state, and the government needed to give 34% to BCs even as per the Panchayat Raj Act, they said.

The delegation said that they would fight against the TRS together in the LS polls.