BCs to get 34% quota in panchayat polls: Jupally

Panchayat raj minister Jupally Krishna Rao on Thursday said reservations for the forthcoming panchayat elections will be finalised by June 25. He said the elections would be held as scheduled in July and dismissed reports that they could be postponed.

Addressing a press conference in Secretariat, Mr Rao said 34 per cent reservations would be given to the Backward Classes as it was in 2013. Enumeration of BC voters had been completed in all districts.

Mr Rao said SCs and STs communities will be given reservations in proportion to their population at 20 per cent and six per cent respectively. He said 1,170 panchayats with 100 per cent ST population would be reserved for the community, besides another 1,300 panchayats which are located in scheduled areas.

He said half the seats in all categories would be reserved for women.

Reservations for wards will be determined by taking the village as a unit and for the sarpanch elections by taking the mandal as a unit.

The minister stated that the government would hold three months of training classes for the newly elected sarpanches and ward members to create awareness on the Panchayat Raj Act, brought by the TS government in March this year.

Mr Rao distributed tablet PCs for a few women self help groups through the Stree Nidhi Bank. He said tablets would be distributed to all 18,000 SHGs in the state in phases.

“Tablet PCs will enable women SHGs to conduct village organisational programmes in a faster and transparent manner. They can also apply for the Stree Nidhi bank loans online,” Mr Rao added.