BC Bill in TG Assembly: Cong, BRS engage in verbal slugfest

Hyderabad: The Congress and BRS engaged in a war of words during the discussion on Telangana BCs, SCs and STs (reservation of seats in educational institutions and of appointments or posts in the services under the State) Bill, 2025 in Assembly.

As the BRS MLA Gangula Kamalakar questioned the non-inclusion of the recommendation made by the party, the Treasury benches countered the demand citing technical reasons. T Harish Rao while reassuring support backed the reasoning of the fellow MLA and said that the Bill should have included provision of 42 per cent reservation to BCs even in government contracts. He recalled how during the BRS regime, it provided about 50 per cent reservation in some areas including in posts of Marketing Committee chairman and also in allocations of wine shops.

Countering Harish Rao’s argument, BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar wondered as to how the provision like government contracts can be included in the Bill. He asked how this type of aspect was related to the Reservation Bill. He reiterated that tabling the bill was aimed at doing justice to BCs and press for an enactment of a law in the parliament on BC quota. He questioned Harish Rao as to how the BRS party’s demands were related to the Bill.