BC Commission urges Telangana to halt Panchayat polls over reservation errors

The Telangana Backward Classes Commission has objected to the reduction of BC reservations in Gram Panchayat elections, urging the State government to keep the polls in abeyance until errors are rectified. Chairman G. Niranjan and Commission Members highlighted that while BCs received 22.78 percent reservations in 2019, the figure has now dropped to 21.39 percent despite a household survey.

Hyderabad: Raising objection over the decrease in reservations for BCs in the Gram Panchayat elections, the Telangana Backward Classes Commission urged the State government to keep the ensuing elections in abeyance.

It also demanded that a high-level committee be constituted to rectify errors in finalising reservations before conducting the elections.

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The Backward Classes Commission Chairman G Niranjan and Members Rapolu Jayaprakash, Tirumalagiri Surender, and Balalakshmi Rangu met here on Friday and held discussions on the reservations provided to BCs in local bodies and their impact.

It was observed that in the 2019 Panchayat elections, BCs were given 22.78 percent reservations which have now been reduced to 21.39 percent, marking a decrease of 1.39 percent. Surprisingly, in the recent household survey, the BC population was recorded at 56.33 percent and yet the BC reservations percentage had gone down compared to the last elections, the Commission Members pointed out.

Due to an error in the reservation-determining process, BCs reservations have been decreased. This needs to be corrected before conducting the elections, failing which, severe injustice would be meted out to the community, they said.

“The State government should keep the elections in abeyance and a high-level committee should be constituted to rectify the errors in finalizing the reservations before holding the elections,” BC Commission Chairman G Niranjan said in a statement.