Andhra Pradesh Govt Gives 5% Reservation to Kapu Community, Breaches SC-Mandated 50% Ceiling

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Saturday unanimously passed a bill to give 5% reservation to the Kapu community in government jobs and education institutions, breaching the Supreme Court-mandated 50% limit on minority quotas.

The Chandrababu Naidu government moved the bill — one of the TDP’s key election promises in 2014 — after the Cabinet discussed a report by the Justice (retd) Manjunatha Commission, which was constituted to study reservations for Kapus.

The bill extends 5% quota to Kapus under the Backward Castes (BC) 'F' Category. The state already has 29% reservation for Backward Castes under A, B, C, D and E categories. Apart from this, 15% and 6% reservations exist for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), respectively.

With the quota for Kapus, the total reservation in the state goes up to 55%, beyond the 50% cap set by the Supreme Court for reservations.

The bill will now be sent to the Centre. “As 5% reservation to Kapus makes total reservation exceed 50%, the central government nod is compulsory. We will send this bill to the Centre. We ask them to include this reservation in Schedule 9, so it becomes legitimate,” Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu said in the Assembly.

“We are fulfilling our election promises. To provide reservations for Kapu community, we formed a Commission in 2016 under Justice Manjunath. During my Padayatra, I closely watched Kapu community's difficulties and announced reservations for the community. Through Kapu Corporation, the government is taking up welfare activities for the community in a big way with a budget of Rs 1,000 crore every year," he said.

"The existing Backward Castes won't be affected by the decision. Our aim is to eradicate poverty, financial and social inequalities and create a happy society.”

The Kapu community had staged a protest for reservation in January last year in East Godavari district, but the demonstration turned violent and protestors burnt a train and vandalised a railway station.