Seethakka Slams BRS On Local Body BC Reservations

Telangana Panchayat Raj, Rural Development, Women and Child Welfare Minister Seethakka today denounced the "unfounded" accusations made by BRS working president K T Rama Rao, who claimed that the Congress government had reduced BC reservations to 17%.

She said that KTR's statements were completely inaccurate and that the public would not be misled by falsehoods surrounding the issue of BC reservations.

Seethakka said that the Congress government had completed the caste census and reservation process intended to help the BCs, with sincerity. She also said that the then Congress government had provided 34% reservation to BCs in the local body elections held in 2014, but in 2019 the BRS government had reduced them to 22%, causing severe injustice to the community. She said that the BC community would never forget this betrayal.

She also said that the Supreme Court had found fault with the policy adopted by the BRS government when it finalised reservations for sarpanches as a State unit in the 2019 local body elections. Seethakka explained that as per the Supreme Court's orders reservations for sarpanches needed to be calculated at the mandal level and reservations for ward members needed to be determined at the gram panchayat level.

The minister said that the 50% reservation cap needed to be followed as per the Supreme Court guidelines. She added that certain adjustments were made to BC reservations to ensure that the cap was not exceeded due to higher SC/ST populations in some mandals.

"If the local body elections are delayed, Rs 3,000 crore due from the Centre will be withheld, which will seriously impact village development," she said.

Even as the government was fighting for an increase in BC reservations, the Congress as a party was prepared to allocate 42% of its own tickets to BCs in the local elections, Seethakka said, and asked whether the BRS was ready to do the same.