Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Verma sent the ordinance intending 42 percent BC Reservations to the Union Home Department on Thursday for legal advice on the draft ordinance. The governor has already discussed the ordinance issued by the state government to increase reservations for BCs in local body elections with the Advocate General and several senior lawyers.
Later, he sent the bill to the Center. It is known that the state cabinet recently decided to amend Section 285 Clause-A of the Panchayat Raj Act 2018. However, Section 285 Clause-A states that reservations in local bodies shall not exceed 50 percent. The state government has issued an ordinance amending the law by removing the sentence not exceeding 50 percent.
However, the Governor expressed doubt that this ordinance violates the previous Supreme Court ruling that there should be no more than 50 percent reservation. On the other hand, as per the orders of the state High Court, the rural local body elections are to be held by September 30.
The high court has made it clear that the reservations should be finalized within the first month and the elections should be held within the next 2 months. The High Court has told the state government to finalize the reservations within a month. That is, the state government has to finalize the reservations by Friday (July 25).
But so far, there has been no clarity on the reservations for local body elections. It is known that the state cabinet meeting held on the 10th of this month approved the implementation of 42 percent reservation for BCs. To legalize this, an ordinance was brought with amendments to the Panchayat Raj Act and sent to the Governor, and recently the Governor was sent to the Center for legal advice on the draft ordinance.
However, the ordinance has not yet received the approval of either the Governor or the Central Government. Since this issue is not clear so soon, there is tension in the political circles about the local body elections.
On the other hand, as there are signs that the local body elections will be held as soon as there is clarity on BC reservations in the state, it seems that the authorities are preparing all the arrangements in advance. The voters’ list has already been prepared village-wise and ward-wise.
The State Election Commission recently ordered the collectors to prepare the data of polling personnel. It has been said that the details should be based on the number of districts, revenue divisions, mandals, panchayats and wards.