Hyderabad: Uttam dubs NDA, TRS govts anti-Dalit

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that both BJP and TRS were against reservation for SCs, STs and BCs and their governments at the Centre and in Telangana State conspired to scrap the caste-based quotas in education and employment.

Addressing day-long dharna at Dharna Chowk here on Monday, Reddy said that the Supreme Court's recent verdict stating that reservation for SCs and STs was not a fundamental right is quite shocking and the judgment was the result of misleading and wrong representation made by the BJP government on the issue.

He alleged that BJP and RSS were against reservation for SC, ST, OBC and minorities. However, he said that the Congress party would never let BJP and RSS to succeed in their dreams of scrapping reservation.

The Congress leader said the SC judgment has created lot of confusion and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was not giving any clarity by re-assuring the SC, ST, OBC and minorities that the ongoing quota would remain untouched.

The TPCC chief also slammed the TRS for its silence on the promise of enhancing quota for Muslims and STs in Telangana. TRS MPs did not raise the issue in the Parliament even once.

Stating that no legal hurdles were involved to enhance ST quota, he demanded that reservation percentage for Scheduled Tribes in Telangana be increased to 10% without further delay.

He demanded that the curative legal and legislative measures be taken to protect SC and ST reservation, especially in view of recent judgment and announced that the Congress party would continue its struggle to protect the ongoing caste-based quotas across the country.

Several leaders including TPCC working President A Revanth Reddy and senior leaders V Hanumantha Rao, Mohd Shabbir Ali and P Laxmaiah were also present.