TRS for constitutional path to 12 per cent muslim quota: KTR

Hyderabad: Stating that the TRS will lead an all-party delegation to the Centre soon to exert pressure on the NDA government to enact necessary Constitutional amendment for implementing 12 per cent reservations, Panchayat Raj minister K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday slammed the signature campaign taken up by the Congress seeking 12 per cent quota for Muslims in the state. “Congress has unveiled a new drama and is shedding crocodile tears for minorities. For six decades, it treated minorities as a vote bank. Sachar Committee report said that the condition of Muslims was worse than that of Dalits. TRS is committed to 12 per cent reservations. It will be implemented at any cost,” Mr Rama Rao said.

He said that the TS government will set up Sudhir Committee to go into the issue. “Once the Sudhir Committee report is presented, we will set up a BC Commission which is mandatory. Reservations cannot cross 50 per cent. We don’t want to repeat the mistake done by the Congress. We will convince Parliament and bring in a Constitutional Amendment to include it in the 9th schedule. We want to ensure that the quota is not struck down by courts as it happened in the past,” the minister said.

Mr Rama Rao invited TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy to join the all-party delegation to New Delhi. He said AICC president Sonia Gandhi should also exert pressure on the Centre in this regard. Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy had launched the campaign “One Million Yes for 12 per cent Muslim Reservations” on Monday. Taking a dig at the Congress, Mr Rama Rao said that the party has been rejected by the people in all the recent polls.

“Uttam Kumar Reddy and his team were pulled up by his party high command. With nothing else to do, they have now latched on to 12 per cent reservations. They are trying to mislead Muslims,” he said. The Congress, Mr Rama Rao said, had promised 5 per cent reservations, but could not implement it. “They implemented four per cent reservations. Signature campaign for 12 per cent reservations shows their political bankruptcy,” he said.