Hyderabad: A petition has been filed before the Telangana High Court seeking a direction to the government and the State Election Commission to proceed with the municipal elections after reserving one-third of the number of the seats to the Backward Classes.
Mr Yerra Satyanarayana of the Backward Class Welfare Association at Hyderabad, said the government was going to conduct the urban local body elections without following Section 8(1)(b) of the Telangana Municipalities Act 1965, which provides one-third reservations to the BCs. He said the government was attempting to reduce the BC reservations to 34 per cent and the National Backward Classes Commission had found fault with this.
In earlier PILs filed by BJP leader Anju Kumar Reddy and others, BJP MPs Dharmapuri Arvind of Nizamabad and Soyam Bapurao of Adilabad filed affidavits before the HC stating that they were not informed by the authorities regarding the division of wards in municipalities in their constituencies as required under the law. They said the pre-poll process was done in violation of the rules laid down in the Municipalities Act.
They filed these sworn affidavits in support of the contentions of Mr Anju Kumar Reddy who filed a PIL seeking a stay on the probable issuance of the notification on elections, alleging that the state had not followed the rules.
