Telangana plans special law to provide 12 per cent quota for Muslims, STs

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government will bring in a special Act to provide 12 per cent quota for Muslims and Scheduled Tribes in education and employment. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said a special session of the Legislature would be convened for the purpose.

Mr Rao was speaking after the commissions of inquiry constituted by the state government in March 2015 to look into the issue of increasing reservations to Muslims and STs to 12 per cent submitted their report.

The Chief Minister said the government would pass a law along the lines of the one in Tamil Nadu to provide legal protection to 12 per cent quota since the overall quota in the Telangana state would surpass the 50 per cent limit prescribed by the Supreme Court once this was done.

Panels find communities lagging behind
Mr Rao expressed confidence that the quota increase would pass legal scrutiny since there was a Constitutional provision to give reservations in proportion to the ratio of population.

Both the commissions are learnt to have stressed on the urgent need to increase the quota since their studies have found that these communities are lagging way behind other castes in jobs and education.

These reports are expected to be approved in the Cabinet meeting likely to be held next week, following which a special Act  will be passed in the Assembly session likely in the last week of August or first week of September.

At present, Muslims have 4 per cent quota under the BC-E category and STs have 6 per cent quota. The overall quota of 50 per cent in the state will increase to 64 per cent once the Act is passed.

The Tamil Nadu government had brought the special Act to enable it to implement 69 per cent reservations 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.

The TRS had promised to provide the 12 per cent quota in its 2014 election manifesto and after coming to power in June 2014, the CM had set up two commissions, in March 2015, to prepare a comprehensive report on social, educational and economic status of Muslims in the state and give their recommendations on increasing reservations.

Retired IAS officers G. Sudhir and S. Chellappa headed the respective commissions on Muslims and STs. While the commissions were supposed to give their reports within six months, it was extended by an year to enable them to tour all the districts extensively, conduct public hearings to assess the socio-economic and educational condition of these sections.