KTR slams Opposition parties for misleading statements
Responding to Opposition legislators' allegations during the discussion on the GHMC (Amendment) Bill in the State Legislative Council, the Minister said the 50 per cent reservation for women will not have any impact on the BC reservation.
Hyderabad: Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao on Wednesday slammed the Opposition parties for making misleading statements and creating apprehensions among people for political mileage. “Reservations in GHMC Council are being implemented as per the Constitution and the amendments proposed by the State government to the GHMC Act are not meant to undermine the role of elected representatives,” he asserted.
Responding to Opposition legislators’ allegations during the discussion on the GHMC (Amendment) Bill in the State Legislative Council, the Minister said the 50 per cent reservation for women will not have any impact on the BC reservation. He said about 50 per cent seats were reserved for women and at least 33 per cent seats are to be reserved for BCs as per the Constitution.
“In the 150 divisions, TRS has 79 women corporators (52 per cent) against the 75 reserved seats for women. Similarly, we have 51 BC corporators (34 per cent) elected against 50 (33 per cent) divisions reserved for BCs. If 32 Muslim corporators are also taken into account under BC-E category, the representation of BCs in the GHMC Council works out to 67 per cent,” he explained. On lesser number of seats reserved for SCs and STs, he said these reservations were fixed on the basis of their population as per the Constitution based on the 2011 Census conducted during the Congress regime.
Rama Rao said TRS was committed to implementing 50 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies and would lend its support to any legislation brought in the Parliament. He dared both BJP and Congress to bring a legislation in this regard in Parliament. He pointed out that though both parties claim to have made efforts to implement 50 per cent reservation for women in Parliament as well as in Assembly and the Council, none actually acted on their promises and brought out a legislation.
In response to BJP MLC N Ramachandra Rao’s allegations against the State government on preventing encroachments and welfare of street vendors, the Minister said the BJP government at the Centre was only providing loans to street vendors and had no real commitment for their upliftment. He said Telangana was ranked number one in the country in terms of identification and licensing of street vendors, as well as providing them loans on population ratio basis. “We are in second place in terms of numbers, next only to Uttar Pradesh which has largest street vendors’ force in the country,” he added.
Rama Rao stated that despite repeated pleas, the Centre had failed to provide Rs 1,600 crore to Hyderabad city under Million Plus Cities scheme. He suggested that the State BJP leaders use their influence with their Central leadership and get all the dues pending to the State released immediately.
“The BJP leaders including Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and Secunderabad MP G Kishan Reddy express their love for Hyderabad only through their statements, but do not put in any real efforts for its development. The Central government did not release any additional funds other than those given under devolution of funds as per the Finance Commission’s allocations or Constitutional obligations. In fact, the Centre is not even releasing the GST compensation dues to the State, and Finance Minister T Harish Rao has been forced to put up a fight for release of funds on a daily basis,” he said.
The GHMC (Amendment) Bill, which was cleared by the Assembly on Tuesday, was passed in the Council on Wednesday. It gives legitimacy to 50 per cent reservation for women in the GHMC Council, allocation of 10 per cent budget for green cover, and constitution of citizens’ committees among others.
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