The Telangana Assembly today passed a Bill to increase reservation of Scheduled Tribes and backward sections among Muslims. The bill was passed during a special sitting, during which all five MLAs of the BJP were suspended for disrupting the proceedings. Speaker Madhusudhana Chary suspended the members after Legislative Affairs Minister Harish Rao moved a resolution to this effect.
The suspended MLAs include GK Reddy, K Laxman, Raja Singh, NVSS Prabhakar and Chintala Ramachandra Reddy. The BJP members raised slogans against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and tried to disrupt the debate on the draft legislation.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had moved a bill that proposed to increase quota for Muslims from 4 per cent to 12 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes (ST) from 6 per cent to 10 per cent.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dubbed the move as against the spirit of Constitution and “communal”. Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu had earlier said that the implementation of reservations on the basis of religion may result in social unrest in the country and “lead to creation of another Pakistan”.
The chief minister has, however, clarified that the reservations are being provided on the basis of socio-economic backwardness and not based on religion or caste. He accused the opposition parties of trying to mislead the people.
