Hyderabad: The Telangana state government is all set to include more castes in Backward Classes list. Requests are pouring in from BC sub-castes to include them in the list after the Centre recently passed the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill 2021 in Parliament.
The new law accorded powers to states to prepare their own BC lists in matters of reservations for them in education and employment.
Official sources said TRS leaders from BC communities submitted representations to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on this and the CM has promised to discuss and possibly decide on this at the next weekly cabinet meeting.
As many as 26 BC sub-castes have submitted representations to the TS government to include them in BCs list. At present, there are 129 castes in the BC category and they were divided into four groups – A, B, C and D — depending on their backwardness, with a total of 25 per cent reservations granted to them in education and employment. If these 26 castes are added, the total castes under BCs list will increase to 155.
However, castes already in the list are strongly opposing the inclusion of more castes without raising the existing 25 per cent reservations limit for BCs in education and employment.
"BCs comprise nearly 52 per cent of the population in Telangana. As of now, the reservations extended are only 25 per cent for 129 castes. What's the point in adding more castes to the BC list without raising reservation quota? The government should increase reservations for BCs to 52 per cent, proportionate to the population size and bring pressure on the Centre to amend the Constitution to lift the 50 per cent overall reservations ceiling set by the Supreme Court, asked R. Krishnaiah, president of the National BC Welfare Association.
"If the Centre could recently amend the Constitution to give powers to states to decide on their own BC lists, why is it not amending the Constitution to lift the 50 per cent overall quota," Krishnaiah asked.
He expressed the apprehension that state governments will misuse their powers to add more castes under the BC list without taking up any scientific study on their social and economic status, and for these ruling parties to derive political mileage in elections.
The TS government had added 17 castes in September 2020 to the BC list with the approval from the Centre. The 26 new castes in the proposal stage include those that were removed from the BC list after the formation of Telangana State in 2014. The TS government removed these castes by arguing that they are "Andhra-based BC castes" and these communities do not belong to Telangana.
People from most of these deleted castes in Undivided AP had settled down in Hyderabad or elsewhere in Telangana over the past many years but lost the reservation benefit due to their deletion from the BC list after the bifurcation.
