Congress concerned over local bodies' polls

Hyderabad, Sept 5: The Congress party on Wednesday expressed concern over the conduct of elections for the local bodies in the State, especially in view of Andhra Pradesh High Court's verdict limiting the reservation to 50 per cent. 

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, PCC OBC Committee chairman Chitranjan Das said that the last elections were held with 60.3 per cent reservation. However, since the High Court orders have to be followed, this time the reservation could not exceed 50 per cent. He proposed that all political parties unanimously pass a resolution in the State Legislative Assembly seeking Centre's intervention to increase the reserved seats in the local bodies to 60 per cent. 

Chitranjan condemned the accusation of opposition parties on the State Government that it did not represent the matter properly in the High Court which led to the cut in reservation percentage by 10.3 per cent. He said instead of criticising the government, the opposition parties should themselves have represented the matter in the court. However, he said that the opposition parties were trying to gain political mileage from the High Court's verdict. 

Welcoming the High Court's verdict, Congress spokesperson N Tulasi Reddy said that the Congress needs to work out a solution to contest the elections in view of cut in percentage of reservation. He said about Rs 2,000 crore of Central funds were stopped due to non-conduct of elections for local bodies. He hoped that by holding the elections, developmental activities could resumes in local bodies although it might create some political problems for the ruling party.

- INN

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