Hyderabad: The state Cabinet, which is scheduled to meet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday, will primarily focus on the proposed Polavaram-Banakacharla link project on the Godavari river by Andhra Pradesh and the elections to local bodies. This will be the first meeting after the Chief Minister decided to hold cabinet meetings twice a month as a regular feature of administration.Contrary to earlier plans to hold the local body polls in July, the government may have to postpone it to August as the process of finalising reservations would require at least two to three weeks. However, a final decision is expected in the next two days as the cabinet and the Political Affairs Committee of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) will deliberate on it and finalise the next course of action. The Cabinet will also discuss in detail the Polavaram-Banakacharla link project and the adverse impact it is expected to have on Telangana. Revanth Reddy already indicated in a recent chit chat with media in New Delhi that he was in favour of an amicable and win-win solution for inter-state river water disputes with AP. He said he would even propose a meeting with his AP counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu before exploring the legal options to stall the project. The Chief Minister also revealed that the Cabinet will take a final decision on it. “Apart from the regular business, we will allot considerable time to discuss on Telangana getting a raw deal so far in the river water distribution post-bifurcation for which the BRS is solely responsible. Even with regard to the controversial Banakacharla project, it was KCR who gave the idea to AP and the Congress needs to thoroughly expose the BRS on this,” a minister pointed out. Revanth Reddy is also expected to brief his ministerial colleagues on his offer to AP according to which Telangana will not object to any of the AP projects if the latter agrees to 1,500 TMC feet of assured water to Telangana for its existing and proposed projects. “For local body polls, reservation of ratio and seats for Backward Classes have to be fixed before every election by appointing a commission. The government completed the process of inquiry by the B Venkatesam committee. Now the process of fixing ratio and reservation of seats has to be taken up,” official sources told Deccan Chronicle. As of now there is a provision to fix BC reservation up to 29 per cent in view of the 50 per cent cap but like in the previous round of elections, the average reservation for BCs will be around 22-23 per cent. The officials ruled out the possibility of bringing a GO, as demanded by BC leader and BJP MP R. Krishnaiah and Telangana Jagruthi president K. Kavitha for fixing 42 per cent reservation for BCs. Maintaining that any move to break the 50 per cent cap should have statutory backing, a senior official said since the state had already passed an Act to increase the reservation to 42 per cent and sent it for Presidential assent, any executive order would not withstand the legal scrutiny.
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