An amendment bill, providing 50 per cent reservation for women in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), was passed on Tuesday by the Telangana Legislative assembly. The assembly, which met for a day, passed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2020, providing for the reservation and three other amendment bills.
Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao told the House that the government’s concurrence for conducting the polls is necessary in view of any contingency like the Covid-19 pandemic and heavy rains.
At the eleventh hour, the CM K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) dropped the proposal to relax two-children norm for the candidates to contest the elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation likely to be held in November and December.
On the other hand, AICC spokesperson and senior Congress leader Dr. Dasoju Sravan warned Chief Minister KCR of severe backlash from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), if Government does not conduct a caste census to ascertain OBCs population and provide reservations accordingly in the upcoming Municipal Corporations elections.
Saying that TRS Government has been betraying OBCs through political trickery, Dr. Dasoju Sravan demanded conducting the OBCs census through BC Co-operative Finance Corporation and also implement OBCs categorisation even in elections alike in education and employment spheres.
“The Telangana Government is once again trying to deceive OBCs in Municipal Corporations elections and called for a Special Assembly Session to make amendments to GHMC Act. But now we are warning CM K Chandrashekar Rao that OBCs will launch a mass agitation against TRS Government if it goes ahead to conduct Municipal Corporation elections without taking up the OBC voters survey and categorisation,” said Dr. Dasoju Sravan.