• Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly has unanimously passed Kapu Reservation Bill, 2017 to provide 5% quota in education and employment.
• The reservation to Kapu community will be given by including them in Backward Classes list.
• The reservation to existing Backward Castes will not be affected by this decision.
• The Bill left no scope for political quota by clearly mentioning that it was confined to admission to educational institutions and in the State services but that it should not be construed as giving reservation in political positions or posts.
• With the quota for Kapus, the total reservation in state goes up to 55%, beyond 50% cap set by Supreme Court for reservations. Andhra Pradesh already has 29% reservation for Backward Castes.
• The Kapu reservation issue had a historical background dating back to the British regime, under which the Kapus were considered BCs but were deleted from that list when Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy was the Chief Minister.
• Apart from this, 15% and 6% reservations exist for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
• The bill will be sent to Centre for its consent and State government is also going to request Centre to include this reservation in the 9th Schedule, to insulate it from judicial review.

Source:TH