The Telangana state government has issued an order enhancing reservations for Scheduled Tribes (ST) from 6% to 10%, with effect from October 1, Saturday. The enhanced reservation will be applicable in educational institutions as well as in government jobs. The government is hopeful that the decision will help bridge the backwardness and the extreme poverty prevalent among the state’s tribal communities, exacerbated by decades of oppression and negligence.
The decision to enhance ST reservations was taken based on the recommendations of a commission of inquiry, constituted in 2015 under the chairmanship of S Chellappa, a retired IAS officer. The Commission interacted with all stakeholders including elected representatives, academicians, journalists, and civil society organisations, and conducted public hearings on the matter. It also toured tribal habitations and districts with large tribal populations, besides studying the 2011 census. After the elaborate study, the Commission observed that the state’s ST population has significantly increased since 1986, when a 6% reservation was implemented for the community. After taking several factors into consideration, the Commission recommended the enhancement of ST reservation.
In this wake, around six years ago, the Telangana State Legislative Assembly had passed a Bill proposing increased reservations for the ST category. The Bill was then sent to the Union government for Presidential assent, and has been in cold storage since then. For years now, the Telangana government has been urging the Union government to give its nod for the enhanced reservation, but to no avail. Subsequently on September 17 this year, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao made an announcement that the state government would increase ST reservations from 6% to 10%, following which an executive order to this effect was issued past midnight on Saturday.
With this 4% hike, the total reservations in Telangana will go up to 54%. As per a Supreme Court ruling in the Indira Sawhney case in 1992, however, all reservations are supposed to be capped at 50%. The state, meanwhile, is holding on to the exception stated in the ruling, that reservations could go beyond the set limit in special circumstances — in this case, the fact that tribal people comprise nearly 10% of the state’s population.
It may be noted that in the state of Tamil Nadu, reservations had crossed the 50% limit and went up to 69% back in 1994. This was later validated after it was placed under Schedule 9 of the Indian Constitution.
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