Hyderabad, Jul 12 (PTI) The Telangana government has issued an ordinance facilitating 42 per cent reservation to Backward Classes in local body polls by amending an Act that was passed by the State Assembly in 2018, officials said on Saturday.
The state cabinet on July 10 decided to issue the ordinance.
Addressing leaders of backward class associations who called on him on Saturday to thank him for the ordinance, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said the Congress, under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, has fulfilled the aspirations of the BCs.
The Congress government has also completed caste survey in the state as per the word given by Rahul Gandhi during his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', an official release quoted Reddy as saying.
The opposition parties allege that the state government lacks sincerity in implementing BC reservations, but it is the BJP which lacks sincerity, he said.
The BJP-led government at the Centre should include the state's BC reservations in the 9th schedule of the Constitution (as it can be shielded from judicial review consequent to the quotas exceeding the 50 per cent cap), Reddy said.
Union ministers from the state G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar and the BJP MPs should ensure this, he said.
The BJP leaders should prove their sincerity towards the cause of the BCs, he said.
The ruling Congress, before the 2023 assembly polls, had promised increasing BC quota to 42 per cent from 23 per cent in local bodies, besides giving 42 per cent reservation in government civil construction and maintenance contracts.