VIJAYAWADA: The AP Legislative Assembly on Thursday resolved to provide 33% reservation to Backward Classes (BCs) in the legislative bodies.
In the afternoon session of the Assembly, Minister for BC Welfare S Savitha introduced the resolution.
Elaborating on the importance of 33% reservation for BCs, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said the TDP has been most supportive of BCs since its inception, and advocated their political empowerment.
“IT was our party founder NT Rama Rao, who emphasised social justice, had reserved 25% of seats in local bodies for BCs, which was enhanced to 33% when I became the Chief Minister,” Naidu said.
Elaborating on how the TDP has been following the policy of political empowerment of BCs within the party, he said several stalwarts like K Yerran Naidu, KE Krishnamurthy and Devender Goud were given priority.
He further said though they did social engineering and ensured BCs were given party tickets during the recent elections, much more needs to be done. “We should understand that BCs are dependent on traditional occupations for their economic survival. With traditional occupations slowly becoming wane, economic support is needed for such people. The government is making every effort to help out these sections,” he asserted.
However, Naidu opined that justice can be done to BCs only when they have political representation by their population strength. Hence, the AP Assembly has resolved to provide 33% reservation to BCs in the legislative bodies. “We will also advocate similar reservation at the national level,” he added.