Congress leader and former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir today alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's
promise of giving the EWS of Telangana a 10% quota in jobs and education was a stunt aimed at misleading the people ahead of the various upcoming elections in the state.
"The CM's promise of introducing a 10% EWS quota is no different from his promise of bringing in a 12% quota for the Muslims, or the 10% quota for the ST community - KCR exploited the sentiments of the Muslims and the STs for electoral gains ever since he came to power in 2014. However, he has now gone on to neglect the two communities, and has not done anything to support them. This new promise to the EWS of the state will also meet the same fate. It will remain unimplemented, and the CM will promptly forget all about it after the conclusion of the upcoming elections in the state's two graduates' constituencies and the Nagarjuna Sagar by-elections," Shabbir Ali alleged.
To bolster his point, he reiterated the fact that although the CM had promised to implement a 12% quota for the Muslim community within four months of coming to power, in April, 2014, he had not done anything to keep his word for three long years.
"After failing to keep his word for three years, the CM finally passed a faulty bill in the state's Legislative Assembly and Council in April 2017 in a half-hearted attempt to mollify the Muslims. On top of that, instead of implementing the new law directly, he then forwarded it to the Centre for approval, following which the Centre sent more than three circulars to the Telangana government seeking an explanation for the enhancement of the Muslim quota from 4% to 12% and the ST quota from 6% to 10%. However, the government did not even bother to respond to those notices. This proves that KCR has become a habitual liar. He can even promise the moon and the stars to the people of the state if he thinks that will help him win an election," Shabbir Ali said.
"The Congress-led union government had promised to extend 5% reservation for Muslims in its 2004 election manifesto, and had then implemented the quota just 58 days after coming to power. While the quota was then reduced to 4% on the directions of the High Court, the reservation was implemented successfully for almost 15 years. Lakhs of poor Muslims under the BC-E category benefitted from the quota without any legal hurdles. However, KCR only cheated the Muslims and the STs after promising them that he would enhance the reservations for the two communities in the state. How can one believe his newest promise then?" he asked.
The former minister alleged that the CM was now trying to "lure" the economically weaker sections to vote for the TRS by making a false promise of introducing the quota for them.
"If KCR is sincere, then he should implement the decision within a specific deadline. The Congress will even extend all the support required by the state government to implement the same if the CM shows any seriousness and honesty about fulfilling the promise," he said.