"Obstructing bill with malicious intent": Telangana CM Revanth Reddy criticises BRS chief KCR over 42% BC Quota

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], August 31 (ANI): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday said that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) Party president K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) was against Backward Classes empowerment and "creating hurdles" for the enactment of the bill in the house after participating in the debate on the Backward Classes (BCs) quota bill in the Assembly.
The BRS legislator G Kamalakar's statement of his full support for the bill is admirable. However, the party leadership is not happy and is "obstructing the bill with a malicious motive", an official statement from the Telangana Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.
The CM appealed to Kamalakar not to succumb to pressure from BRS leadership and stop spreading misinformation to the weaker sections from the Assembly. Blaming each other by the BC community leaders is not a good sign for the backwards communities, the CMO statement quoting the CM said.
Furthermore, as per the statement, the Chief Minister held KCR responsible for not increasing the BC quota, as the Panchayat Raj Act 2018, enacted during the BRS rule, does not permit an increase of the quota beyond 50 per cent.
The Chief Minister questioned the BRS for not supporting the big dharna held at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding the union government approve the BC quota bills pending before the President of India.
"It was a clear sign of the lack of sincerity of BRS in increasing BC quota," the CM charged.
"People have already given a mandate against BRS," the CM said, warning the opposition party of facing public ire again and losing their stature if the party did not stop playing politics on BC's political empowerment.
The opposition party influenced the governor and stalled the promulgation of the ordinance for the BC quota.
The Governor forwarded the bills and ordinance to the President of India for approval, but there has been no positive response yet. Since the centre has not approved, the government decided to adopt a bill to lift a 50 percent cent cap on reservation in the assembly.
The Chief Minister also mentioned that the state government had written letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi five times seeking an appointment, but the PM had not responded positively.
Elaborating on the state government's unstinted efforts to increase the BC quota, the Chief Minister said that the Dedication Commission was constituted as per the High Court's orders. Rajya Sabha member R. Krishnaiah has filed a writ petition (Writ Petition No. 30381/2024) in the High Court, demanding that information be collected through the Dedication Commission and not through the BC Commission, the statement added.
"We conducted a caste survey through the Dedication Commission to provide 42 per cent reservation to the weaker sections," the CM said.
Further, as per the statement, referring to BRS leader Kamalakar's statement that Rajasthan and Bihar faced numerous challenges, the CM stated that the Telangana government had sent an official committee and ministers to study the policies in other states to resolve the hurdles.
The CM said that the government has appointed the Dedication Commission only after examining the legal issues. The entire process of the Caste Census began on February 4, 2024, and was completed on February 4, 2025. "We worked diligently to enact a law for the BC quota within a deadline of 365 days."
"The BC quota was approved in a cabinet meeting before being adopted as a resolution in the Assembly. We sent two separate bills to the Governor to provide a 42 per cent quota in education, empowerment and local bodies. The two bills have been pending with the President for the last 5 months," the Chief Minister said, pointing out that some forces approached the High Court on local body elections, and the court ordered the election to be conducted by September 30. (ANI)