Telangana CM asks officials to chalk out action plan to increase BC quota in panchayat polls

Hyderabad, Jul 15 (PTI) Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday directed officials to draw up an action plan to enhance Backward Classes reservation in the upcoming rural local body elections.

Revanth Reddy held a meeting with ministers and officials and enquired about the time required to complete the caste census which has already been approved and conduct local body elections on the basis of the outcome of the census, an official release said.

The CM told the officials of the concerned department to prepare an action plan to increase BC quota as well as to conduct the elections at the earliest to avoid delay in the release of central funds to the local bodies, it said.

The CM suggested studying the implementation of reservations in the local body elections in other states.

He said another meeting would be convened on the issue before the commencement of the budget session of the state assembly (likely to begin this month-end) and take a final decision on increasing reservation based on the report prepared by the officials.

Some backward classes organisations have earlier demanded that the Congress implement its electoral promise to increase OBC reservation to 42 per cent from 23 per cent in the Panchayati Raj system. PTI SJR ROH