KCR writes to PM on 33% quota for women, OBCs

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to initiate necessary legislative process in the upcoming special session of the Parliament to implement 33 per cent reservations each for women and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in Parliament and state legislatures.

The Chief Minister, who is also president of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), sent two separate letters to the Prime Minister after the BRS parliamentary party meeting in Hyderabad on Friday.

The BRS parliamentary party meeting, presided over by KCR, as Rao is popularly known, passed resolutions demanding 33 per cent reservation each for women and OBCs in Parliament and state legislatures.

KCR wrote that the Telangana legislature on June 14, 2014 passed unanimous resolutions, requesting the Centre to provide for 33 per cent reservation for OBCs and women in Parliament and state legislatures.

“I am dismayed to note that the Government of India has not initiated any action on this front so far.

“As you are aware, the visionary architects of our Constitution have envisaged for providing suitable provisions in the Constitution for affirmative action by the state to correct historical wrongs that were done to socially and educationally marginalised sections of the society. Part of this objective was achieved by providing for reservations for OBCs in public employment and admissions in educational institutions. However, as you would agree with me, proportionate representation in Parliament and state legislatures is a sine qua non in a democratic polity to reflect hopes and aspirations of marginalized sections of the society,” reads the letter.

In another letter, KCR informed Modi that Telangana government is implementing 30 per cent reservation for women in public employment and admissions in educational institutions.

“However, suitable representation in Parliament and state legislatures is required in a democratic polity to reflect hopes and aspirations of marginalised sections of the society,” he said.

–IANS