Hyderabad: The TS government will refer the issue of increasing reservations for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in education and employment to 12 per cent to the soon-to-be-set up State BC Commission before the Bill on the issue is passed by the Legislature.
The commissions of inquiry appointed by the state government in March 2015 to look into the issue of increasing quota submitted their reports to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in August this year.
The commissions toured the state extensively, conducted public hearing to assess the socio-economic and educational condition of these sections. They found that both these sections lagged way behind in jobs and employment and accordingly, recommended the quota hike.
Based on this, the government wanted a special session of the Legislature in August/ September to pass the Bill on quota increase. However, legal experts pointed out that only the State BC Commission has the power to add or delete reservations and the recommendations made by commissions of inquiry would not stand legal scrutiny.
There is no BC Commission for TS since the formation of state as the government failed to constitute it so far. The CM decided to constitute the commission at the earliest to speed up the quota hike process.
The state Cabinet is expected to meet on September 26 to approve the setting up of BC Commission. Retired IAS officers G. Sudhir and S. Chellappa headed the commissions of inquiry.
While the Sudhir Commission is learnt to have recommended 12 per cent quota for Muslims in proportionate to their population, the Chellappa commission is learnt to have recommended less than 10 per cent quota for STs as their population in TS is only 9 per cent.
The TS government has decided to adopt TN model which brought special Act to implement 69 per cent quota two decades ago.
The 76th amendment to the Constitution brought the TN reservation law into the 9th Schedule of Constitution, to protect it from judicial scrutiny. However, the TN law too is before the Supreme Court and a final verdict is awaited.
