VIJAYAWADA: A petition has been filed in the AP High Court challenging the conduct of local body elections without providing population-based reservations to Backward Classes (BCs).
The petition was filed on Saturday by Dr Ala Venkateswarlu, honorary president of the AP unit of the All India BC Federation. He contended that the State government’s decision to proceed with local body elections without completing a comprehensive caste census and a socio-economic-political survey amounts to a violation of the constitutional rights of BCs.
Dr Venkateswarlu urged the court to direct the state government to immediately complete a comprehensive caste census and a socio-economic, educational and political survey, and to determine BC reservations in proportion to their population based on the findings of the survey. He further requested the court to restrain the government from conducting local body elections until this process is completed.
He pointed out that although BCs constitute more than 50 per cent of the population in the state, reservations provided to them in local bodies are limited to only 29 to 34 per cent.
Proceeding with elections without scientific data on the BC population, he argued, deprives BCs of their rightful political representation.
The petitioner cited Articles 14, 15(4), 15(5), 16(4), 38, 40 and 46 of the Constitution, along with the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, stating that the government is obligated to ensure political representation to BCs in proportion to their population.