The Telangana Assembly on Saturday passed the Telangana Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2026, doing away with the two-child norm that barred individuals with more than two children from contesting rural local body elections. Moving the Bill, Panchayat Raj Minister D Anasuya Seethakka said the policy, introduced in 1994 as a population control measure, was reviewed after 30 years and found outdated given Telangana’s rural fertility rate of 1.7—below the replacement level of 2.1. She warned that a sustained low fertility rate could harm the state’s long-term demographic and economic interests, while stressing the need to avoid both sharp decline and unchecked growth.
The amendment replaces an earlier ordinance issued to facilitate gram panchayat polls following a high court directive. While BJP MLAs opposed the move, calling it politically motivated and risky amid national population pressures, CPI members supported removal with safeguards through periodic demographic studies. The Assembly also cleared a separate Bill renaming Jain Tirumalapur village in Wanaparthy as Jayanna Tirumalapur, with the government agreeing to examine other pending renaming requests after district-level reports.
