Congress, BJP, TDP Walk Out Over Delay In SC, ST Commissions

The Congress, BJP and TDP members today walked out of the Telangana Assembly protesting against the state government's delay in setting up separate commissions for the welfare of the SCs and STs in the state.

The sequence of events started when, Leader Of Opposition and Congress member K Jana Reddy, BJP Floor leader G Kishan Reddy and TDP member Sandra Venkata Veeraiah accused the state government of dilly-dallying in setting up two separate commissions despite there being a demand for that for a long time.

Replying to that, SC Welfare Minister Jagadish Reddy informed the House that the state government was indeed committed to setting up separate commissions for SCs and STs. Saying that his government was quite sensitive to all issues concerning the communities, the minister said that the government was for instance taking firm action in incidents of atrocities on the weaker sections.

With regard to the backlog in filling vacancies reserved for SCs and STs, steps would be initiated to fill them at the earliest, he said.

However, even after the minister's assurances, the opposition members were not satisfied and staged a walkout.

The minister then lashed out at the opposition members for that, and described it as merely a publicity gimmick to derive political mileage. He reminded the House that a separate SC/ST Commission was created in 2010 itself, and that those who served as ministers in the erstwhile government did not split it to set up separate commissions themselves while in power, but were now shedding "crocodile tears".

His dig was aimed at Jana Reddy, who was a minister in the erstwhile Congress regime.

Taking potshots against the BJP, too, the minister said the state government had sent a representation to the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre about the formation of separate commissions for SCs and STs. "Unfortunately, the Centre has been lending a deaf ear to our pleas and evading sanction on some pretext or the other. And the BJP MLAs, instead of taking on their own government at the Centre, are trying to shove the blame on the State government," he lamented.

He declared that the walkout was only a drama for garnering media attention.