Hyderabad: Expressing serious doubts over the implementation of enhanced quota for Muslims under BC-E category, Congress MLA T. Jeevan Reddy asked whether Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao would not seek votes of Muslims in the coming elections if he failed to implement 12% quota.
Participating in the debate on Telangana Reservation Bill in the Assembly on Sunday, Jeevan Reddy said that the TRS Government enhanced quota for Muslims and STs only to wash its hands off from the promise made by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao during elections.
He said as announced by KCR earlier that he would not seek votes if he failed to provide tapped drinking water to all households in the State, he asked whether he would not seek votes from Muslim community if government fails to implement increased quota.
Intervening on the issue, the Chief Minister said he was confident of implementing the enhanced quota.
Jeevan Reddy said that the Congress party was supporting the Bill for enhanced 12% reservations for Muslims under BC-E category. However, he expressed doubts over BJP-led NDA Government supporting the Bill. He expressed fear that the Bill might not withstand the legal scrutiny.
Speaking about ST reservation, Jeevan Reddy said that the State Government could directly implement the enhanced quota of 10% for STs without involving the Central Government. However, he said inclusion of new castes in the ST list would need the approval of Central Government.
He also demanded increase in BC quota to 50% as the BC communities constitute over 52% of total population in the State. He said that the quota for SCs should be increased by 1%.
Participating in the debate, BJP floor leader G. Kishan Reddy said that though the Chief Minister might have made the promise of giving 12% reservation to Muslims in 107 public meetings, but the BJP, in over one lakh meetings, has declared that it was against religion-based reservation and it would oppose them.
He said, the religion-based reservation was against the Constitution and categorisation of Muslims in different groups was anti-Islamic.
MIM MLA Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri advised the State Government to create a new group BC-F to provide additional 8% quota. He said entire 12% would be lost if the additional quota gets scrapped in a court of law. (INN)