The Telangana government decided to hike the reservations for the socially and economically backward among Muslims on Saturday, to 12% from the existing 4%.
The decision was taken by the state cabinet at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The cabinet also decided to increase the quota for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) from the current 7% to 10%, official sources said.
Both the Houses of the state legislature will be meeting on Sunday for a special session to pass a bill for increasing the quantum of reservation for Muslims and STs in education and jobs.
As this will take the overall reservations in the state beyond the prescribed limit of 50%, the legislature will pass Telangana Reservation Bill and send it to the Centre with a request to include it in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution as was done in the case of Tamil Nadu.
Chandrasekhar Rao said Telangana was following the model of Tamil Nadu, where the overall quota for different groups is 69%.
This came just a day after Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu stated that the BJP was against providing reservation based on religion.
"Reservation based on religion will lead to social unrest in society. Such move also paves way for formation of another Pakistan. Therefore, our government won’t allow religion-based reservation which is against constitutional norms. It is BJP’s national policy and not the policy of party’s Telangana state unit,” he was quoted as saying.
After passing the bill, which will take the overall reservation quota in the state beyond the prescribed limit of 50%, it will be sent to the Union government for President's assent.
Earlier, KCR had said that he would move the Supreme Court, if the Centre did not respond positively
"Nearly 90% of Telangana's population belongs to SC, ST and OBC categories. Tamil Nadu government increased the reservation according to their population. The Parliament accepted their proposal. Telangana too will do the same,” KCR had said
IANS inputs