JIH seeks speedy implementation of 12% quota to Muslims

Hanamkonda: The president of Jamat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Telangana and Odisha State units Hamid Mohammed Khan demanded that TRS government expedite the process of extending 12 per cent reservations to Muslims.

He said 12 per cent reservation to Muslim minorities was not the demand made by the Muslims but was a poll promise made by the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao during Telangana agitation, which was also included in the party election manifesto.

However, there was no progress made in the reservation promised to Muslims even after the government is close to completing three years of its term, Mohammad Khan said while speaking to presspersons in Hanamkonda on Wednesday.

He said Telangana State Commission for Backward Classes which was constituted to study the living conditions of backward sections of Muslims on Tuesday submitted the report to government.

The commission in its report observed that about 90 per cent Muslims in the State were living below the poverty line and suggested the extension of nine per cent reservations to Muslims. Now it becomes the duty of the State government to incorporate the commission recommendations in the Schedule 9 of the Constitution, the JIH leader noted.

He explained that the reservations proposed to Muslims were based on the backwardness of the community members. Hence the reservations could not be classified as religion based, he said.

The TRS government in their election manifesto promised to ensure a CBI probe into the encroachment of Waqf properties in the State. But no steps in that direction were taken so far, he complained.

Responding to a query on Babri Masjid issue, he said the Jamat would welcome and accept whatever verdict the Supreme Court gives on the issue.