Vijayawada: Taking advantage of the 10 per cent reservations given to economically weaker sections (EWS) upper caste persons, the AP Cabinet on Monday decided to give five per cent reservation for Kapus. Reservations for the other five per cent will be extended to the other forward castes.
The AP Legislature had passed the AP Kapu Reservation (of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in Services Under the State) giving reservations five per cent reservations to the Kapu community.
That had taken the total reservations to 55 per cent, above the Supreme Court mandated cap of 50 per cent, and the state government had forwarded the Bill to the Centre for assent and for placing in Schedule 9 of the Constitution where it is considered to be beyond judicial review.
The Centre passing the Constitutional amendment Acts to give effect to 10 per cent EWS quota, which takes reservations to 60 per cent, gave the government an opportunity to extend reservations to the community. The measure will be debated in the Assembly in the forthcoming session. The states are empowered to take a decision on extending 10 per cent EWS quota.
The Cabinet which met here on Monday under the leadership of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu approved the state government’s decision to enhance various social welfare pensions. With the Cabinet approval, the pensions of Rs 1,000 will be doubled to Rs 2,000 and those of Rs 1,500 will be doubled as Rs 3,000.
In a significant development, the state Cabinet decided to waive off life tax on autos and also quarterly tax that are levied on tractors used in agriculture. This move will benefit around 9.79 vehicle owners and the government will incur a revenue expenditure of Rs 60crore.
The Cabinet also decided to sanction Rs 60,000 per unit to 1,26,097 houses which were grounded without prior sanction from June 2014. The government will spend an additional Rs 756 crore for this scheme.
