Quota-wary government may go slow

 There appears to be no scope for elections to local bodies in the state in the near future.

 If PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana’s statement on Tuesday is any indication, the Congress is keen on holding wide ranging discussions with all the stakeholders on the question of scaling down reservations for backward classes (BCs) in pursuance of the High Court’s order.

 This indicates that the Congress is not ready to take the blame for the delay in holding the elections to Panchayat Raj institutions nor look as the one which reduced the reservation percentage for the BCs.

 Satyanarayana said the Congress wants to approach local body elections strictly in accordance with the court’s direction.

 “We have to honour the judgement. The Supreme Court had ruled that reservations should not cross 50 percent and the High Court too stated the same in its recent order. Congress wants a revision petition filed in the High Court seeking a direction to the state that it could go ahead with the elections with the existing 60. 5 percent reservations including 34 percent for OBCs,” he said.

 Kiran Reddy’s government in the state has found itself in a piquant situation after the recent High Court order that reservations for all categories (OBCs, SCs and STs) should not cross 50 percent.

 The implications of the HC order are that the government will have to scale down reservations to the OBCs, by 10 percent, from 34 to 24.