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Telangana govt to debate caste survey report in House today

The session is expected to provide clarity to the Congress government’s stance on increasing reservations for BCs and categorising SCs into four sub-groups

Hyderabad: All eyes are on the Legislature special session on Tuesday, where the government will table, debate, and approve the reports of the caste census, the dedicated commission on Backward Classes quota in local polls, and the one on sub-categorisation of Scheduled Caste community groups.

The session is expected to provide clarity to the Congress government’s stance on increasing reservations for BCs and categorising SCs into four sub-groups. The legislature is likely to pass resolutions on the two issues which the government will refer to the Centre for approval.

The SC categorisation is crucial for issuing fresh job notifications, which have been stalled since October 2024, to allocate reservations based on the new sub-categories.

The state government first wants to use dedicated commission data to enhance reservations for BCs in the upcoming elections for local bodies, expected in March.

Next will be enhancing reservations to BCs in education and employment based on their population. For this, the state government needs to amend the Reservations Act for which it requires the Centre's approval.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy will table the census reports and SC sub-categorisation report in the Assembly soon after the session begins at 11 am, and initiate the debate. After taking feedback from all the political parties in the House, the CM will give his reply, sources said.

Revanth Reddy is also expected to introduce resolutions approving caste census report, the dedicated commission report and SC categorisation report besides passing a resolution urging Centre to allow the state government to enhance reservations for BCs, SCs and STs in proportion to their ratio of population.

The Congress government ordered a comprehensive door-to-door caste census during November-December 2024 to determine the socio, economic and political status of all castes. The Telangana BC Commission conducted the survey with the assistance of the planning department. The caste census report was submitted to the state government on Sunday.

The government has constituted a Dedicated BC Commission led by retired Telangana High Court judge Justice Shameem Akhtar in October 2024 to determine the political representation of BCs in local bodies and make recommendations to enhance BC reservations based on their population.

The commission submitted its report on Monday to Cabinet sub-committee hair and minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy. The state government will table this report in the House on Tuesday.

On August 1, 2024, a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in a landmark verdict had ruled that states can sub-classify SC casts for the purpose of extending reservations in education and employment within the 15 per cent quota allotted for the comunit to provide better support for the most disadvantaged groups.

Revanth Reddy had announced in the Assembly on the same day that Telangana would be the first state to implement SC sub categorisation and announced the government's decision to appoint a commission to study the verdict and recommend measures to state government for its implementation.

Revanth Reddy had announced in October that the state government would issue fresh job notifications only after it took a decision on SC sub-categorisation.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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