Visakhapatnam: 19 per cent quota sought for upper caste poor

Visakhapatnam: The All India Brahmin Federation (AIBF) has demanded 19 per cent reservation for economically backward people from seven upper castes, including the 5 per cent reservation for Kapu community. Like the existing Brahmin and Kapu corporations, the AIBF sou-ght a separate Economi-cally Backward Classes (EBC) corporation for Kshatriya, Vysya, Velama, Reddy and Kamma communities.

“The Andhra Pradesh government has recently recommended to the Central government to give 5 per cent reservation to Kapu community in government jobs and education institutions. We ask the state government to provide 14 per cent reservation to other economically backward people from the upper castes,” AIBF chief advisor Kota Sankara Sharma said here on Tuesday.

He said the Karnataka government is also in the process of enhancing reservation to economically backward individuals from the forward castes in educational institutions and government services based on the recommendations of the S.R. Sinha Commission. Already, the state governments of Rajasthan and Haryana have granted 14 per cent and 12 per cent reservations respectively.

According to Mr Sharma, the AP government has accorded in-principle approval for 10-acre land in Amaravati for the AIBF to establish Ayurvedic hospital, Ayurveda college and university in the new capital of the state. The federation plans to start construction of all these with a budget of '100 crore as soon as they sign the agreement with the government.

The AIBF has been actively supporting economically backward people from the Brahmin community by offering scholarships and interest-free loans. It also organises Brahmin Udyog Vedika (job mela) and mass marriage programmes once in a year. It is going to conduct a national executive council of the AIBF in Hyderabad on January 6, 2018 to discuss on providing similar welfare measures across the country.