Deputy CM Srihari Says Modi Ignoring SC Categorization

Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari today lashed out at the Centre and the Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra Pradesh for failing to act on the pending issue of SC categorization.

Addressing the media at the Secretariat, Srihari said that the state government had passed a bill in the Assembly session in favour of SC categorization, but that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was refusing to take up the issue.

Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not been responding to repeated pleas made by Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao citing the Gujarat elections and other issues, he accused the PMO of dragging the issue to the extent that the Madiga community in the state was starting to go on the warpath.

He stated that he had also sought to impress the urgency of the issue upon the PM during the GES event that had recently been held in Hyderabad, but that state BJP leaders K Lakshman and G Kishan Reddy did not put their weight behind him.

He charged the BJP and its regional ally the TDP of being apathetic towards the long-pending issue.

He also asked MRPS founder-president Manda Krishna Madiga, who was protesting the issue in the state, to do so at Delhi in order to exert pressure on the Centre since the Parliamentary session was underway.

He said that his government would take up a fight with the Centre if the Prime Minister's Office failed to respond to the request for an all-party meeting by January 5 and come out with a viable action plan.

He reiterated that the TRS government was in favour of SC categorization and that it would take all steps to ensure that the Centre took up the cause.