HYDERABAD: The All India Backward Community Association (AIBCA) and several other BC groups staged a protest at Dharna Chowk on Thursday demanding that the TRS government recall its decision to cut down reservation for backward classes from the planned 34 per cent to 28 per cent before December 25. Workers of Opposition parties gathered at the demonstration site in support of the agitators.
The association threatened to take out a statewide demonstration if the government did not comply with its demand before the deadline it set.
Among the Opposition leaders who joined the stir were Congress leaders V Hanumanth Rao and Ponnala Lakshmaiah, TSLC Opposition leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir, Dr K Lakshman (BJP) and L Ramana (TDP). Left leaders too participated in the agitation.
Several people gathered to listen to the protesters sing folk songs highlighting the plight of the underprivileged in the State. The protest that began at noon went on till 3 pm. Justice V Eswaraiah, president of the AIBCA, supervised the event said. “The last integrated household survey took place in 2014 and the report showed that the BC community constituted over 52 per cent of the population. How is it that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has agreed to the Supreme Court (ruling that reservation cannot exceed 50 per cent) without consulting BC organisations and giving them a chance to make their case?” he said.
Hanumanth Rao voiced his dissatisfaction with the ruling. “This is a huge blow to the development of backward communities in the State. The order passed must be reversed at the earliest for the benefit of the people,” he said.