BJP MLA Payal Shankar on Sunday strongly opposed the state government’s move to include Muslims under the Backward Classes (BC) quota in the reservation framework. Speaking on the reservation issue, he said that the bill introduced in the Telangana Assembly proposing 42% reservation for BCs must remain exclusive to BC communities.
“The Congress government wants to bring Muslim reservation through the back door. They say a survey was conducted in Telangana to give justice to the Muslim community, but in reality, this is an attempt to begin Muslim reservation in Telangana and extend it across the entire nation,” Shankar alleged.
The BJP leader reiterated that his party supports justice for BCs but will firmly resist any effort to dilute their share by including other groups. He said the Congress was using the issue for political appeasement rather than genuine social upliftment.
On the Kaleshwaram Project irregularities, Shankar accused the former Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government of massive corruption and said accountability has been delayed. “The commission report on corruption was submitted 22 months after the government came to power. Had they ordered this probe immediately, the accused would have been behind bars by now,” he stated.
He further demanded strict action against those responsible for mismanagement in the multi-crore irrigation project, which has faced criticism for cost overruns and technical lapses.
