Senior Congress leader and Jagtial MLA T. Jeevan Reddy on Friday urged the Telangana Government to increase the quota in jobs and education for the Scheduled Tribes with proportionate to their population.
In a memorandum submitted to Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, the Congress MLA said that STs have lost several opportunities during the last three years due to delay in increase in the percentage of reservation for the community. He pointed out that the ST population in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh was 6%. After the formation of Telangana, their population has increased to 10% in the new State. However, the State Government continued with 6% quota causing heavy loss for STs. Citing an example, he said due to non-implementation of additional 4% quota, STs lost about 80 MBBS seats every year. Similarly, the STs lost opportunities in other professional courses and also the recruitment drives conducted by the Telangana State Public Service Commission.
Jeevan Reddy said that increasing the reservation percentage for STs in proportionate to their population was under the purview of State Government and it need not take any approval from the Central Government. However, he alleged that the TRS Government was delay the process only to deny STs their due share. (INN)