The Kapu community in Andhra Pradesh is likely to get the 5 per cent reservation in education and employment under the 10 per cent OBC quota. The issue was cleared in Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhoumik, who said that the states are enabled to give the 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
The Andhra Pradesh Assembly had passed a bill giving five per cent reservation to the Kapus from the 10 percent of the EWS. The TDP regime headed by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu passed the bill in 2019 before the election.
However, the bill is not being implemented by the successive YSR Congress government headed by Jagan Mohan Reddy.
BJP MP, GVL Narasimha Rao, raised the question in the current winter session of the Parliament on Wednesday for which the Minister replied stating that the State governments are enabled to implement the reservation.
The Minister further said that the States have a separate list of the OBCs and can extend the 10 per cent reservation to those communities as the government may feel fit. The States were given the power as per the 105th constitutional amendment made in 2021, the Minister said.
It is now to be seen if the Jagan Mohan Reddy government would extend the five per cent reservations for the Kapus which was drawn by the TDP regime from the 10 per cent EWS quota.