Kavitha protests on railway tracks in Kamareddy, demands 42 pc BC reservations

Hyderabad: Telangana Jagruti president Kalvakuntla Kavitha on Friday, November 28, organised a ‘rail roko’ protest in Kamareddy demanding 42 BC reservations.

Kavitha’s office has said that the protest was organised in Kamareddy since Congress made the declaration to implement 42 percent reservations from the same district.

Protestors, sitting on railway tracks, raised slogans of ‘Jai BC’ and ‘Jai Jagruti’ and ‘Jai Telangana’ and were later removed by the police. Kavitha reportedly received a minor hand injury in the tussle.

Telangana State Election Commission on November 25 issued a notification for Gram Panchayat elections, scheduled in three phases next month. As per the notification, elections will be held on December 11, 14 and 17 for 12,728 posts of sarpanchs and 1,12,242 wards.

The Congress government has been fielding for 42 percent reservations in local body polls and even released a government order for the implementation of the same.

An election notification was issued on September 29 for Gram Panchayat, Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs), Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) elections but as High Court set aside the government order, the notification was suspended. 

Following this, the Telangana Cabinet on November 17 decided to conduct only Gram Panchayat elections in December as the Rs 3,000 crore grant that should come from the Centre will lapse by March 31, 2026 and announced that the decision on conducting MPTCs, ZPTCs and municipal corporations will be taken after the High Court’s final orders on 42 per cent reservation for BCs. 

However, when the list of total Panchayats reserved for BCs was released, it drew flak from the opposition. Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president KT Rama Rao slammed Congress, saying even after spending Rs 160 crore on the caste census, the ruling party only delivered 17 percent reservations, a fall from the previous 24 percent.