Hyderabad: Telangana’s legislative assembly passed two Bills increasing reservation for the backward classes (BCs) to 42% as promised by the Congress at the hustings in its BC declaration in Kamareddy. It has also passed a Bill sub-categorising reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) into three categories, becoming the second state to do so after Haryana.
The BC Bill seeks to extend political reservation to the community in local bodies, municipalities and government corporations. As the Bill becomes law and the assembly is in session now, political observers have drawn attention to the damage done by the Telangana Panchayati Raj Act, 2018 passed by the then-Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government to curtail the independence of local bodies and their representatives and are seeking a reversal of the situation.
The Congress had on its part flayed the 2018 law that empowers the district collector to remove a sarpanch based on mere allegations and leaves them at the mercy of the bureaucracy as a clear case of over-reach over elected representatives.
The panchayats, as per the 73rd constitutional amendment Act that was passed in 1992 and took effect on April 24,1993, have to receive powers under 29 subjects of the Eleventh Schedule to the constitution, but only a few have been delegated to them so far.
The arbitrary power to remove sarpanches was exemplified by the instance of Desaboyina Mallamma, who represented the Veliminedu gram panchayat in the Chityala mandal of Nalgonda district. She was reinstated after she approached the high court.
Chalakani Venkat Yadav, currently a bar council member and who had represented her, said that she was accused of not implementing the ‘Palle Prakruthi Vanam’ program as part of which trees have to be planted as recommended by the MLA.
“The sarpanch was suspended by the district collector arbitrarily without due procedure. Her bid to end her life bagged headlines and many sarpanches like her had to seek redressal from the court because of this situation,” he said.
In many instances, he added, people from forward castes who became upasarpanches wielded the actual power in the gram panchayat, even as those who worked as house-helps and did other menial jobs remained figureheads and occupied the sarpanch post.
C.H. Balaramulu, currently visiting faculty at the Centre For Economic and Social Studies in Hyderabad, said: “Power equations which were earlier panchayat-centric have turned in favour of MLAs and MPs, and they are the ones who are deciding who should be a sarpanch or the head of another local body. Even the powers delegated to the panchayats are on paper.
“The MPPs [mandal praja parishads] and ZPTCs [zilla parishad territorial constituencies] have become powerless. MPTCs [mandal parishad territorial constituencies] don’t have an office either. The district planning committees should be constituted to coordinate urban and rural plans, but are not being constituted. Without such delegation of powers, just giving reservations is not enough. The norm of barring those having more than three children from representing local bodies is wrong.”
What do sarpanches have to say?
The penchant for revenue and the consequent merger of gram panchayats into the nearest urban bodies has left gram panchayats short of funds that should rightfully accrue to them, P. Praneel Chander, general secretary of the Telangana State Sarpanches Forum, said.
The urban development authorities are run by political appointees who then decide on the spending of these funds, he also said.
“Fees on building and layout permissions, registration charges, royalty charges on sand, taxes on homes and water, and entertainment tax on theatres, playgrounds, swimming pools, etc” will all go to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation as was witnessed when its net was widened to include 27 urban local bodies earlier this year.
“This [trend of merging gram panchayats into urban bodies] has resulted in the inclusion of all the 441 villages in the [Mahabubnagar] district under the purview of the Mahabubnagar Urban Development Authority (MUDA). This situation leaves the sarpanches no other choice than to be at the mercy of MLAs for funds. The MUDA, which received Rs 38 crore between 2021-23, spent Rs 32 crores in the municipalities like Mahabubnagar, Jadcherla and Bhoothpur, leaving the villages short of funds,” he said.
The incumbent Congress government, which issued an ordinance to amend the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019 and expand the urban area of Hyderabad up to the Outer Ring Road and further by merging 51 gram panchayats into nearby municipalities in the the Rangareddy, Sangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts in September, announced the inclusion of another 36 revenue villages having 1,355 villages into the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority on March 12.
Chander further estimated that royalties worth Rs 800 crore from the use of sand and soil that panchayats have to get are pending.
The 32% share of registration charges that panchayats have to get for land conversion to real estate have not been given for four years now, Chander said, adding that 70% of real estate transactions in Telangana have happened in the panchayats.
The government, he said, could have retained old sarpanches as persons-in-charge and availed Union government funds instead of foregoing them, citing precedents from 1986 and 1994.
The rythu vedikas, Anganwadi centres, burial grounds and Palle Prakruthi Vanams were built by the sarpanches under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and they have to currently get Rs 1,300 crore. Of this, the state’s share is Rs 694 crore, Chander said.
Both the Union government and the state failed panchayats, he rued, adding that pending bills should be released before the sarpanch elections. He also feared that if people owing allegiance to other parties are elected, it could create problems in their disbursal afterwards.
“Currently, an electric lineman, ASHA worker, anganwadi teacher or ration dealer who work at the village level are not answerable to the sarpanches. In this digital era, why should anyone go to the mandal office to get caste, income and death certificates? They can be given at the gram panchayat level itself,” Chander added.
B. Rajasekhar Reddy, a former sarpanch of the Kurmidda gram panchayat which falls in the purview of the area where incumbent Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy plans to build a new city close to the capital called the ‘fourth city’, said the sarpanches in the state were just ordered to take up some works, failing which they were suspended, leaving many in debt.
He pegged the chances of former sarpanches to contest again at just 50%, while their state body [Telangana State Sarpanches Forum] states that only 20% of them might enter the fray again as they are debt-laden.
The appointment of the BC commission was needed to implement the electoral promise of giving 42% reservation to the BCs in local body polls by the Congress. The caste survey attains importance as it will become a template for such studies across the country and raise demands for its emulation even during the national census.
Political observers and intellectuals said that the classification of BC castes into A, B, C and D categories as witnessed in the united Andhra Pradesh was a scientifically done exercise. It was done by the Anantharam Commission appointed in 1969.
Historical context of reservation for BCs
Explaining the history of the demand for classification of BCs, E. Venkatesu, a professor with the department of political science at the University of Hyderabad, said that BCs did not have reservation for two decades in the composite Andhra Pradesh after independence.
“The Kaka Kalelkar Commission formed in 1953 opined that caste should not be determinant for backwardness and that decisions on it should be taken at the state level, following which the Anantharaman Commission was formed in 1969 in Andhra Pradesh, which submitted a report in 1970. BC reservation has been in place since 1972.”
The commission recommended 30% reservation, identifying 93 castes categorised into groups A, B, C and D comprising 38, 21, one and 33 castes respectively. Dalits converted into Christianity were included in the C category.
The state government implemented a 25% quota for BCs. It attempted to implement reservation after pressure from the likes of Sardar Gouthu Latchanna and Konda Laxman Bapuji, but the courts said the policy should have a rationale that was provided by the Anantharaman commission.
The number of BC castes increased to 126 over the years.
There is no such classification akin to this in the rest of the country, which applied the theory of relative deprivation.
But over the years, the relative difference between the social, economic and political status of the castes resulted in new demands for reclassification.
The Justice Rohini Commission appointed by the Narendra Modi government examined the Andhra Pradesh model. The formation of the BC commission was needed to implement the electoral promise of giving 42% reservations to BCs in local body polls by the Congress. As new data will be available, it will entail the reworking of the entire BC quota, Venkatesu said.
Commenting on the need for the reclassification of castes, Sujatha Surepally, a professor with the sociology department at Satavahana University in the state, said a caste census has not been conducted after independence.
“Policies can be fine-tuned based on the data if available. Corporations can be opened to benefit a particular caste. Reservations have so far been thought of from men’s perspective. Women are being ignored and should have agency,” she said.
Castes that seek equality should agree to treat others equally, Surepally said. Reservation is not a poverty alleviation program but part of affirmative action to give equal opportunities to communities that are historically disadvantaged, she also said, adding that the ‘joint cheque’ power with upasarpanches should be removed. This power, she felt, was brought in to rein in sarpanches from BC, SC and ST communities whose election benefited from reservation.
The ‘joint cheque’ power refers to the need for the approval of both a sarpanch and an upasarpanch for the disbursal of funds.
The road ahead
G. Niranjan, chairman of the BC Commission, said: “Certain castes like washermen have sought SC status, citing that 18 states have done so. Fishermen (Gangaputrulu) are in the BC-A category, but castes like the Mudirajs, who are also doing the [same] work are opposing their inclusion. They have asked for 50% reservation in fishing ponds.
“Butchers (Arya Katikas) who are in the BC-D category currently are seeking SC status [as is the case in] 18 states. Qureshis among the Muslims are seeking inclusion in the BC-D category owing to their profession. They are currently in the BC-E list created to provide reservation for Muslims during the regime of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the combined Andhra Pradesh state.”
BJP leaders in the state like Union ministers G. Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar have warned that BC reservations that include Muslims will not get assent from New Delhi.
Asked for his take on the issue, Ram Shepherd Bheenaveni, a sociology professor and vice principal at the Osmania Arts College in Hyderabad, said that the reservation for Christians and Muslims should exist on the basis of their social status and profession and not religion.
“A creamy layer should be there on the basis of education and employment, not on financial criteria. Social inequality can’t be eradicated fully with a magic wand but can be reduced incrementally. The government’s policies should aid the process.”
The liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation policies pursued by successive governments have reduced the employment opportunities in the public sector by increasing the struggle among the lower castes for a share of the pie among existing vacancies, Venkatesu also said.
The results of the caste survey itself ran into controversy with BC caste organisations alleging their numbers have fallen short. Out of the total population of the state of 3.7 crore, the survey covered 3.54 crore, reaching out to 96.9% of the population.
The BJP and BRS also challenged the data, citing Election Commission data from April 2024 saying there are over 3.32 crore electors (the population of individuals over the age of 18). Data obtained by the Commissioner of School Education showed that nearly 60 lakh students (classes I to X, accounting for individuals under 17 years of age) are currently enrolled.
Thus, the population in the state was estimated to be around four crore, which the Congress leaders pooh-poohed as unreliable and cited a huge duplication in the voters’ list.
The Telangana government’s legislation on BC reservation will however have to get approval from the Union government as it will cross the 50% limit placed by the Supreme Court.
Chief minister Reddy said in the assembly that the government would approach New Delhi for an exemption from the limit.
The legislation will need inclusion in the ninth schedule of the constitution akin to Tamil Nadu to be exempted from judicial scrutiny.
The caste survey estimates that BCs comprise 56.33% of the state’s population (including 10.08% BC Muslims), SCs 17.43%, STs 10.45% and other castes 15.79% (including 2.48% OC Muslims).
G. Ram Mohan is a freelance journalist. He can be contacted on X at @mnirm.
