HC stays quotas in local bodies

HYDERABAD: It is almost certain that local bodies - mandal parishads and zilla parishads - will have a spell of special officer’s rule for some time. A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday suspended GO 128, issued on June 6, on reservations to be implemented in the elections to the local bodies.The division bench also stayed all subsequent actions effectively sealing the election process which was about to begin in a few days. The High Court judgement came as a relief for the Congress which is just now setting its house in order but the Opposition parties, itching to teach a lesson to the ruling party, were disappointed. They blamed the government for “ensuring” that the election process was sabotaged. A draft ordinance is ready with the government for appointing special officers to the local bodies. The state cabinet which will meet Thursday will take a call on it. There is no hurry for the government to issue the ordinance since the term of the local bodies expires only on July 23. “The cabinet will decide on the issue of ordinance,” a source in the chief minister’s office said.The division bench comprising Chief Justice Nissar Ahmed Kakru and Justice Vilas Afzulpurkar, acting on a writ petition filed by M.Venkata Reddy of Ngulapally village, Mahboobnagar district, issued the direction. The petitioner challenged the constitutional validity of GO 128 issued by amending the rules of 2006 pertaining to reservations to various social groups in the local panchayat bodies.  In the GO, it was stated that the population of the backward classes in the state is found to be 39.39 percent as per the survey conducted by the APBC Finance corporation. Basing on it, the SC communities were allotted 18.30 per cent of the seats, the Scheduled Tribes got 8.25 per cent and the BCs 34 per cent. The case was moved as an urgent lunch motion and the bench heard the arguments by senior advocate Vedula Venkata Ramana. He wondered how the present GO was issued when the Supreme Court had ordered in May 2010 that reservations should not exceed 50 per cent. The bench speaking through the chief justice stayed the GO.Reacting to the High Court’s direction, TDP lMLC and AP Sarpanhces Forum leader Yelamanchili Babu Rajendra Prasad said that there was a conspiracy behind the derailment of the process for elections to the local bodies.YSR Congress chief Jagan Reddy said in the wake of the Court order it was imperative for all parties to come forward to provide 10 per cent reservations for BCs in general seats.