HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) members in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday served a notice to Speaker Om Birla seeking to move a privilege motion against union minister of state for tribal welfare Bishweshwar Tudu for misleading the House on reservations for scheduled tribes (STs). The MPs also raised slogans in the House demanding sacking of Tudu from the Cabinet.
In their notice, the TRS members said they wanted to move a privilege motion under Rule 222 against the union minister for misleading the House in his answer to the question raised by Congress MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on March 21 pertaining to Telangana’s proposal for increasing the quantum of reservation to STs in education and employment.
“The Telangana government not only made a proposal for increase of reservations but passed a Bill No-6 of 2017 (sec 4) (2) increasing the reservations to STs from 6.8 per cent to 10 per cent in April 2017 and sent it to the ministry of tribal affairs,” reads the notice signed by nine Lok Sabha members of the TRS.
The MPs also pointed out that the union ministry of tribal affairs in fact gave its consent through a letter dated December 18, 2017 on the issue of increase of reservations to STs. They said the minister’s answer amounted to breach of privileges of the members.
In his answer, the union minister stated that the Centre had not received any proposal from the Telangana government on increasing ST reservations.
The TRS already demanded that Tudu be sacked from the Cabinet for his blatant lies in Parliament. It also called party cadres and tribals to organise funeral processions of the BJP government in all tribal hamlets and universities in the state as a mark of protest.
TRS floor leader in Lok Sabha Nama Nageshwar Rao told reporters in Delhi on Wednesday that the union minister deliberately misled the house by uttering a lie. “There is not only a proposal to enhance ST reservations but a Bill was also passed by the state legislature. The ministry of home affairs as well as tribal affairs had also acknowledged receiving ST quota Bill from Telangana earlier and had detailed correspondence with Telangana government several times in this regard since 2017,” he said. Rao alleged that Tudu’s reply reflected the bias the Centre had towards Telangana.
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