Hyderabad, May 19: The state government is contemplating to replicate the Karnataka government in providing electoral reservations to various categories during the forthcoming local body elections and restrict the total reservations to 50 per cent as per the Supreme Court orders.
Though the reservations to all categories like BC, SC, ST and minorities come up to 60 per cent, the Karnataka government succeeded in restricting the reservations to 50 per cent without cutting down the reservations to stakeholders in the local body elections.
Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Wednesday discussed the issue with his ministers belonging to BC community and other senior officials at the Secretariat.
Ministers K Jana Reddy, D Prasada Rao, B Satyanarayana, Baswaraj Saraiah, P Satyanarayana, M Mukesh Goud and Congress chief whip M Bhatti Vikramarka were among those who attended the meeting.
In all, about 60 per cent seats are reserved for BC, SC, ST and minorities in the local bodies as against the Supreme Court orders of 50 per cent.
Further, the state government had recently announced that it would increase the reservations for women from 33 per cent to 50 per cent.
Speaking to reporters, transport minister B Satyanarayana said that the government is in no mood to cut down reservations to any category and is examining various options to scale down the total percentage of reserved seats from 60 to 50 per cent in the local bodies.
Another round of discussion will be held to come up with a draft norm for reservations and a final decision would be taken only after consulting all political parties.
–Agencies