States should have power to design quota policies: Tel CM

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today said the Centre should allow states to frame their own policies on reservations based on the local demographic compositions.
Speaking at an interactive session at the "India Today Conclave South 2018", Rao said the Centre should devolve more power and grant more funds for the overall strengthening of "cooperative federalism".
"States like Jharkhand where ST population is very high, if you put a number (sealing) of 50 per cent (to reservations) how can you do justice to the people there?" he asked.
The Supreme Court has capped the quota percentage at 50 per cent.

The composition of Telangana today is "90 per cent SC, ST, Minority and BC, and 10 per cent is OC (Other Caste)," he said.
"How can you satisfy people here with 50 per cent reservations?" Rao said.

He said it was "high time" for the Central government to rise up to the expectations of the people.
"It (hike in reservations) is neither controversial or contentious. It is up to the Government of India to come forward and allow the states to go ahead with the reservations," the chief minister said replying to a query on his government's decision to hike quota for certain sections.

Telangana Legislature had last year passed a bill which increases the reservations for Scheduled Tribes and backward sections among the Muslim community in government jobs and educational institutions.
Rao said though he appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issues of devolution of more funds to states after he came to power, there is a greater need to do more.
"I appreciate Modi for one thing. He has improved the tax devolution which was 30 per cent to 44 per cent. I appreciate that. He is partially implementing cooperative federalism. He should devolve more funds to states. Devolve more powers to states. Unless you make the state powerful, you will never be powerful and wealth of any country is the wealth of states," the TRS chief said.

To another query, Rao said his government is in the process of coming out with the "NRI Policy" soon.
On farmer suicides, he said, "Telangana state is investing in various schemes to bring the (suicide) numbers down. (Causes for suicide)...It is not just about water supply but spurious seeds, loans from banks and a lot of localised issues. These are being addressed and paramount among them is the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agri produce," he said.