ANANTAPUR: The Minister for Agriculture and Civil Supplies N. Raghuveera Reddy has admitted that some goof-ups have occurred in the identification of backward classes in the urban areas.

They will be rectified by August 10 and the political parties and individuals can lodge complaints on the irregularities, if any, by the time.

Three options

Talking to newspersons here on Thursday he stated that the Government had considered three options for identification of BCs in urban areas for the purpose of wards' reservation. Of the lottery system, voter lists as per 2001 census and fresh door-to-door identification, the Government had opted for identification of BCs as per voters' list based on 2001 census.

The lottery system would have done gross injustice to BCs and the door-to-door identification would consume a whale of time, he explained.

During the identification of BCs based on the voters' list, some goof-ups like BCs losing their status and inclusion in the other castes' list and vice versa might have occurred here and there, he said.

BCs will lose nothing

To rectify the bungling, if any, the Government had given time till August 10 to raise objections on the BCs' list. In spite of small goof-ups the BCs are not going to lose anything in the reservation, he assured them.

The Telugu Desam Party is trying to magnify the small problem to gain politically, he alleged.

On the TDP and other parties' opposition to indirect elections, Mr. Raghuveera Reddy sought to know from the TDP why it had changed mandal parishad and zilla parishad elections from direct to indirect method.

The Congress Government had taken up the identification of BCs only to ensure more powers for ward councillors, he noted.

Pitfalls in direct poll

Direct elections have their own pitfalls as lack of understanding between councillors and the chairperson had hampered development schemes in many a municipality in the State, the Minister said.

He cited the examples of Guntakal and Hindupur municipalities in the district, where the TDP had a majority in the council, while the Congress candidates' were elected chairpersons.

He tried to allay the fears of Left and TDP on the possible instability in the civic bodies due to frequent changing of chairpersons. He stated that a provision had been made in the law so that the chairperson could not be changed for three years, once elected.

Cloud-seeding tenders

On the allegations that the cloud-seeding contract was given to an agency without having any experience in the field Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said the Government had followed all necessary norms while finalising the tenders. The lowest bidder was given the contract, he said. The experience aspect had to be taken care of by the officials concerned and not the Minister concerned, he said.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu