True colours of BJP exposed on tribal quota: Satyavathi Rathod

Hyderabad: Tribal Welfare Minister Satyavathi Rathod on Tuesday said the true colours of BJP have come up in Parliament as the Centre washed off its hands from the 10 per cent reservations to tribals, stating that a case was pending in the Supreme Court.

Addressing a press conference here, she said, as Parliament witnessed on Monday, the Centre and the BJP tried to deceive tribals. While the Chellappa Commission report was given in 2015 recommending increased reservations of tribals, the State government sent a resolution to the Centre in 2016.

"Recently, we have taken a decision to increase the tribal reservations. On the occasion of the inauguration of Banjara Bhavan and Adivasi Bhavan, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced the increased reservations and implement it within a few days," said Rathod.

The minister said it was once again proved that the BJP will get away with its words. Union Minister Arjun Munda saying that tribal reservations cannot be increased because it was under the jurisdiction of the SC is a "wicked mindset". In order to have constitutional protection for tribal reservations, they should be included in the Tenth Schedule, like Tamil Nadu.

She recalled that when the TS legislature passed and sent a resolution increasing the reservations, the Union ministers then had lied that they did not receive them. "The BJP should immediately apologise for cheating tribals". She said MP Soyam Bapu Rao was talking about removing Lambadas from the ST list. "It should be clarified whether this was BJP stand or Bapu Rao's personal comment.