The 12 State Backward Classes Organisations in Andhra Pradesh today warned the Congress government that it would resort to a dharna at Indira Park here on September 16 in protest against the reports that the reservation for the BCs in Panchayat Raj election would be brought down from the present 34 per cent to 23 per cent. Mr Krishnaiah’s announcement came in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh High Court directing the State Election Commission on September 4 to hold the panchayat raj elections within three months by putting a condition that the reservations for various categories in the PR institutions shall not cross 50 per cent. Addressing a press conference here, Mr Krishnaiah said thousands of BCs would take part in the dharna mainly to demand the Kiran Kumar Reddy government not to go ahead by reducing the quota for BCs. He said when the organisation was demanding 50 per cent reservation based on the census of the BC population, the government was bent upon curtailing the present quota of 34 per cent. Mr Krishnaiah asked the Ministers, MLAs to mount pressure on the Centre and on the state government to ensure that the present reservations should be intact and for that a constitutional amendment should also be brought forthwith. The Reservation ceiling of 50 per cent as mentioned by the High Court was related to education and employment for BCs and not related to the political reservation, he said.
He alleged that due to the pressure from the upper castes, the state government was seriously thinking of reducing the reservation quota of BCs and warned that the organisations would not keep quiet if the government went ahead. Mr Krishnaiah appealed to all political parties, secular forces and people organisations to come forward and express their solidarity to the dharna and said if anything happened during their movement, the state government should own the responsibility. UNI