HYDERABAD: The state government has set out rules for allocating reservations to ST, SC and BC communities for the forthcoming sarpanch and ward member elections, keeping the overall cap within 50%.
Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Principal Secretary N Sridhar issued GO 46 on Saturday detailing the reservation framework.
Under the order, reservations for sarpanch posts will be based on the 2011 Census for ST and SC communities, and on the state’s 2024 Socio-Economic, Education, Employment, Political and Caste (SEEEPC) survey. For ward members, reservations for all three categories will be drawn from the 2024 SEEEP survey.
The order states that if reservations for any community cannot be assigned due to the absence of population in the required number of gram panchayats, the allocation will first be made in descending order in panchayats where the community is present, with the remaining seats decided through a draw of lots.
Women will be treated as a separate category across all segments, including unreserved seats. Gram panchayats reserved for women in the previous election will, as far as possible, not be reserved for women again this time. If the number of eligible gram panchayats is insufficient after exclusions, the remaining panchayats will be reserve directly for women, with a lottery for the balance.
Dasoju: Rules to deceive the marginalised
Seats reserved for ST, SC and BC communities in earlier elections will not be repeated for the same category. In gram panchayats with a fully ST population, all seats will continue to be reserved for STs.
Revenue divisional officers will finalise sarpanch reservations, while mandal parishad development officers will determine ward member reservations. The number of seats reserved for each category will follow the figures indicated by the Dedicated Commission, which submitted its recommendations on November 20.
Meanwhile, responding to GO 49, BRS MLC Dasoju Sravan criticised GO 46, describing it as “a classic example of hypocrisy, confusion, manipulation and total non-application of mind” by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s administration. He said the use of SEEEPC survey data for ward members and Census 2011 for sarpanch posts showed inconsistency. “What kind of government uses two different data sets in the same reservation exercise? This is blatant deceiving the marginalised,” he said.
Citing Article 243D of the Constitution, Sravan argued that reservations must be based on the most recent published Census. “Who authorised the use of SEEEPC? Where is the constitutional basis? This GO is a direct assault on the Constitution,” he said.