T'gana Assembly Passes Bills To Increase OBC Reservation To 42%

The Telangana assembly on Monday passed two bills to hike the reservation for other backward classes in education, employment and local bodies to 42%, fulfilling a major campaign promise based on the recently concluded caste survey but also triggering controversy over the breached 50% cap on caste-based reservations.

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

HYDERABAD: The Telangana assembly on Monday passed two bills to hike the reservation for other backward classes in education, employment and local bodies to 42%, fulfilling a major campaign promise based on the recently concluded caste survey but also triggering controversy over the breached 50% cap on caste-based reservations.

The two bills — Telangana Backward Classes (reservation of seats in rural and urban local bodies) Bill, 2025 and the Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes reservation of seats in educational institutions and of appointments or posts in the services under the state) Bill, 2025 — were passed through a voice vote, after a brief discussion.

The assembly also passed the Telangana Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Bill, 2025, seeking to categorise Dalits into three groups for reservations in education and employment.

"It is my honour to announce the longest pending demand of the subaltern groups since Indian Independence, the yearning of our brothers & sisters belonging to the backward castes, on being counted & recognised in an official census has finally found deliverance," chief minister Revanth Reddy said.

"We are now resolving to ensure 42 percent reservations for this group in all walks of life — education, jobs and employment & political representation," he added.

Telangana's current reservation matrix sets aside 29% for OBCs in education and employment, and 23% in local bodies. The quantum for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and economically backward classes is 15%, 6%, and 10%, respectively.

If implemented, the new bills will take the total quantum of caste-based reservations in the state to 63%, far beyond the Supreme Court-mandated 50%. To be sure, a slew of states such as Tamil Nadu have already breached the 50% cap.