HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Legislative Assembly on Sunday unanimously adopted the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Third Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Telangana Municipalities (Third Amendment) Bill, 2025, which are intended to provide 42 per cent reservations to Backward Classes in the upcoming local body elections.
"Our government is committed to implementing 42 per cent reservations for BCs," Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said while participating in the discussion on the Bills in the Assembly.
The State government had earlier sent two Bills and an Ordinance to the Governor to provide reservations to BCs in education, employment, and local body elections. However, the Governor referred these Bills and the Ordinance to the Central government, which is yet to give its consent.
"I wrote five letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an appointment and requesting him to allow an all-party delegation to meet him to discuss the BC reservation issue. But the Prime Minister did not give me an appointment," the Chief Minister said.
He recalled that Congress leaders and MPs had staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to exert pressure on the Centre for BC reservations. He called upon the Opposition BRS to support the Bills, warning that otherwise, people themselves would teach them a fitting lesson.
Revanth Reddy also recalled that the State government had decided to observe February 4 as Social Justice Day.
Though the Opposition BRS supported the Bills, former BC Welfare Minister Gangula Kamalakar suggested that the government follow the Tamil Nadu model, which had urged the Centre to include reservations in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. "If you adopt the Bill and initiate the process to provide 42 per cent reservations to BCs, it will not withstand legal scrutiny," Kamalakar told the Chief Minister.
BRS working president and Sircilla MLA KT Rama Rao said the enhanced BC reservations would be implemented only if they were included in the Ninth Schedule. He urged the Chief Minister to sit on an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi to achieve 42 per cent reservations for BCs.
Ghose Commission report tabled
The 665-page report of the Justice P.C. Ghose Commission on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme was tabled in the Assembly on Sunday. The House will hold a short discussion on the report in the evening.