AP govt on a sticky wicket over reservation in PRIs

The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh is caught in a Catch-22 situation with the High Court striking down its order granting 60.55 per cent reservation to various sections in the Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) and directing it to limit the overall reservation to 50 per cent.

Given its dilemma, the government is unlikely to take an immediate decision on the quota issue and will rather delay the elections to PRIs till it could arrive at a politically correct solution, authoritative sources said today.
The PRIs — village panchayats, mandal parishads and zilla parishads — in AP have been under the rule of special officers since July/August 2011 after their term expired. The reservation issue apart, political compulsions have made the Congress government shy away from holding elections to the PRIs for over a year now.
The High Court yesterday delivered its verdict asking the government to ensure the reservation in PRIs did not exceed 50 per cent and conduct the long-pending elections within three months after notifying the reservation afresh.
The government issued an order a few months providing 34 per cent reservation to Backward Classes, 18.30 per cent to Scheduled Castes and 8.25 per cent to Scheduled Tribes, taking the total to 60.55 per cent. As per the statute, government cannot cut down the reservation for SCs and STs if it is to implement the High Court verdict.
That would leave it with no other option but to reduce the quota for BCs. But the opposition parties and the BC organisations have already warned the government against any such move, thereby pushing the government onto the defensive.
PTI