Hyderabad, July 10 (IANS) The Telangana Cabinet, on Thursday, decided to issue an ordinance to increase the reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) in local bodies to 42 per cent in the state.

The Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy decided to conduct the local body elections after increasing the reservation for BCs.

Briefing media persons on the decisions taken by the state Cabinet, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said that the ordinance would be issued to amend the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, to raise reservations for BCs to 42 per cent in the upcoming local body elections.

He said that with this decision, the Congress government would fulfil a major promise made to BCs in 2023 Assembly elections.

The previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had reduced the BC quota from 34 to 23 per cent when it enacted the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act in 2018.

At present, the Act caps total reservations for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and BCs in local bodies at 50 per cent, in line with the Supreme Court judgments.

The Minister said that the Assembly in March passed two Bills to increase reservation for BCs in education, jobs and local bodies to 42 per cent based on the caste census conducted in the state and sent them to the Centre for the presidential assent.

Srinivas Reddy said that though the state government took up the issue with the Centre several times, it kept prolonging the matter.

The Minister added that the Advocate General was called for Thursday’s Cabinet meeting and after taking his opinion to avoid any legal complications in future, it was decided to conduct the local body elections with 42 per cent reservation for BCs.

The state Cabinet noted that the Telangana High Court recently directed that local body elections should be conducted within three months.

The High Court asked the state government to finalise reservation by July-end.

The Minister said that as per the direction of the Supreme Court, the state government had constituted a dedicated Commission for BCs and it also conducted a caste census.

Based on these, the Assembly passed the Bills to increase the BC quota.

The state Cabinet decided to take further steps for 42 per cent reservation for BCs based on the available empirical data.

The state Cabinet also gave the approval for establishing two private universities — Amity University and Saint Mary Rehabilitation University.

–IANS

ms/khz