By IANS
New Delhi : Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao surprised everyone at a press conference Friday by avoiding any reference to the issue of Telangana.
Instead, he harped on the interests of the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities. He dismissed rather cursorily one question on Telangana.
Rao reminded the central government of the report of the National Delimitation Commission that had proposed increasing 12 seats for Dalits and tribes in the Lok Sabha and 59 in legislative assemblies all over the country.
He said that retired judge Kuldip Singh had submitted the report and that it had also been notified in the national gazette as well as in the gazettes of 25 states.
Yet the government was sitting over it, the TRS leader said. “We urge this government, which calls itself progressive, not to act against the interests of the Dalits and tribals.
“Otherwise, we will contact other parties espousing the cause of Dalits and tribals and launch a nationwide agitation against this government.”
At present 79 seats are reserved for Dalits and 41 for tribals in the Lok Sabha. The Delimitation Commission has proposed 85 for Dalits and 47 for tribals.
In the state assemblies there are 564 seats for Dalits and 532 for tribals. These will go up to 610 and 545 respectively once the government implements the Delimitation Commission report.