Congress Objects To PR Polls Without Enumeration Of BC Voters

· Sravan writes letter to CM KCR, Principal Secretary

· Congress demands enumeration, socio-economic survey of BCs

· Demands categorisation in reservation of seats for BCs

· PR polls must be held after revision of electoral rolls: Sravan

Hyderabad, December 16: TPCC Chief Spokesperson Dr. Dasoju Sravan demanded that the State Government defer conduct of Panchayat Raj elections till it completes the caste-wise socio-economic survey of Backward Classes and remove all deficiencies in the electoral rolls.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Sunday, Sravan said that the Telangana Government was planning to conduct Panchayat Raj elections by January 10, 2019 while ignoring orders of the High Court issued under case Vide W.P. No. 20477/2016 dated 26.06.2018. The High Court has directed the State Government to conduct detailed investigation with regard to backwardness of population, collect data, invite objections from general public, analyse the same and then fix the reservation in favour of Backward Classes in accordance with the directions of a division bench of High Court in “Nimmaka Jaya Raj Vs The Government of Andhra Pradesh”. He said although the order was issued in June this year, nothing was done for enumeration of BC voters in the State.

Similarly, he said that the State Government must implement categorisation of Backward Classes in A, B, C, D and E categories in reservation of seats in forthcoming Panchayat Raj elections. He said the State Government has earmarked just 34% of seats for BCs while they should get reservation in proportionate to their population which is 52% as per the Intensive Household Survey of August 2014. He pointed out that almost 100 of 113 castes/groups among BCs had no representation in Panchayat Raj or local bodies. Therefore, he said that the categorisation of seats should be done in a scientific manner based on the actual population of BCs. He said that the categorisation would benefit all categories of BCs.

Further, Sravan said that the State Government wants to conduct Panchayat Raj elections based on defective electoral rolls. He said that more than 22 lakh eligible voters were missing from the electoral rolls and the same has been admitted by Chief Electoral Officer Dr. Rajat Kumar. He said as per the schedule for summary revision of electoral rolls announced by the Election Commission of India, the Integrated Draft Electoral Rolls will be published on December 26; Claims and Objections will be received from 26th December to 25th January; Claims and Objections will be disposed of before 11th February; Updating database and printing of supplement will be done before 18th February and Final Publication of Photo Electoral Rolls will be done on 22nd February, 2019. Therefore, there was no point in holding the Panchayat Raj elections in January without waiting for revised electoral rolls.

Sravan informed that he has written a letter to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and Principal Secretary of Panchayat Raj Department asking them to hold Panchayat Raj elections only after conducting enumeration of BC voters and their categorisation in A, B, C, D and E Groups and only after rectifying all deficiencies in the electoral rolls.

The Congress leader also extended greetings to KCR on assuming the office of Chief Minister for second term. (Maxim News)