Busani Will Head Panel for BC Quota

 Hyderabad: Retired IAS officer Busani Venkateshwara Rao will head the dedicated commission for Backward Classes, which is tasked with conducting the enumeration of people belonging to Backward Classes (BCs) to determine reservations for the community in the local bodies.

The government issued orders on Monday, constituting the commission. The government asked the commission to submit a report as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a month.

The commission is entitled to consider the material evidence collected by the Telangana BC Commission to facilitate the expeditious submission of the report.

The commission can also take the assistance of various organisations, institutions or individuals for obtaining information or statistics pertaining to socio, economic and political representation of BCs. It can also obtain information on the representation of BCs in state government offices, public sector undertakings, commissions, universities and other institutions.

The commission can also avail services of experts and researchers by holding meetings with them and can make study tours to districts to gather information on BCs.

The decision to constitute a dedicated commision comes following a High Court ruling last week in response to a writ petition filed by BC leader R. Krishnaiah. The court had directed the state government to form a dedicated commission within two weeks, stating that delegating this responsibility to the existing Telangana Backward Classes Commission did not meet the requirements set by the Supreme Court to determine reservations for BCs in local bodies.

The court emphasised that an independent commission, exclusively focused on assessing the backwardness of BC communities, was essential, to conduct BC enumeration and determine quota for the community in local bodies.