Telangana government set to issue GO on BC reservations for local body polls

The Telangana government is set to release a GO in the next two days, finalising 42% Backward Class (BC) reservations for local body elections. District-level preparations have been completed, with formal announcements and women’s reservations to follow soon.

Hyderabad: The Congress government is gearing up to release a key government order (GO) in next two days finalising 42 per cent reservations for Backward Classes (BCs) in local body elections.

Officials across districts have been instructed to keep the groundwork ready, with the BC Welfare department to release the preliminary GO, followed by the Panchayat Raj department’s orders to implement it.

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District Collectors have completed a major extent of the exercise of earmarking seats for MPTCs, ZPTCs, MPPs, Sarpanchs and ward members. Once the GO is issued, the reservations will be formally announced in the presence of political and media representatives. Women’s reservations will then be allotted through a draw of lots.

Sources said of the 31 Zilla Parishad chairperson posts, 13 will go to BCs, 5 to SCs, 3 to STs and 10 to the general category, with 50 per cent of them reserved for women.

Telangana has 565 ZPTC seats, 5,763 MPTCs and 12,760 Sarpanch posts, all of which have been mapped for reservation. While reservations for SC and ST will be finalised based on the 2011 Census, the reservations for BCs will be approved as per the recent survey conducted by the State government.

Officials have been warned against leaking details under political pressure until the GO is officially notified. Sources indicated that the government was planning to complete the local body polls before Diwali, with the formal notification followed by a gazette expected soon after the reservations are finalised.

Accordingly, a petition will be filed in the Telangana High Court seeking an extension of the deadline from September 30.