Hyderabad, March 12: Former Minister & ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Wednesday asked Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao to write to the Supreme Court of India supporting the proposal to scrap the 50% ceiling on the reservation in educational institutions and jobs.
Addressing a meeting organized by the Federation of Telangana and AP Minority Educational Institutions here on Wednesday in connection with MLC elections for Graduates Constituencies, Shabbir Ali slammed the TRS Government for not implementing the promised 12% quota for Scheduled Tribes and Muslims. He reminded that TRS came to power in 2014 on the promise of increasing the Muslim quota from 4% to 12% and ST quota from 6% to 12%. However, nothing was done for almost three years. Finally, due to pressure from the Congress party, TRS Govt introduced a Bill in the State Legislature to increase the quota of Muslims to 12% and STs to 10%. The Bill was unanimously passed and was sent to the Centre for approval. Since the increase in quota took the overall reservation percentage to 62%, it remained unimplemented due to the Supreme Court’s ceiling on quota to 50% as per the Indra Sawhney case.
Shabbir Ali said that the Central Government has written three letters to the State Government seeking information with regard to the bill for enhanced quota. However, TRS Govt did not respond to those letters and kept the matter in abeyance. “The recent order of the Supreme Court seeking suggestions from States on scrapping the 50% ceiling on reservations is a welcome move. The Telangana Govt should take advantage of the situation and immediately write to the Supreme Court and the Centre advocating the increase in quota for different castes and communities,” he said.
The Congress leader reminded that the Chief Minister himself has claimed that almost 90% of Telangana’s population comprises the Backward Classes, SCs, STs and minorities and it needed more than 50% reservation. He said States like Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand were already providing more than 50% quota. But CM KCR did not pursue the implementation of enhanced quota in Telangana in a practical and aggressive manner. He said the time was now ripe for CM KCR to move the Supreme Court and get the 50% ceiling scrapped. He said many states including Maharashtra have already approached the Supreme Court to fight against the 50% ceiling.
Speaking about MLC elections, Shabbir Ali said that the TRS Govt has no moral right to seek votes from graduates belonging to the minority communities as CM KCR has betrayed them on all fronts. Besides cheating Muslims on 12% quota, TRS Govt destroyed the minority educational institutions ever since it came to power. Citing figures from the All India Council for Technical Education, he said that the number of minority institutions, their intake, enrolment, passing percentage, and also the placements have drastically gone down.
As against 118 AICTE institutions with an intake of 58,448 in 2014-15, their number has decreased to just 76 with an intake of 32,517 in 2019-20. Similarly, as per AICTE figures, as many as 24 engineering colleges, 17 MBA, 19 MCA, 3 Pharmacy colleges of minorities have been shut down. He said CM KCR has conspired with the BJP Govt at the Centre to deprive Muslims of pursuing higher education.