Congress Joins KCR's New Delhi All-Party Delegate

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy accepted Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's invitation to join the all-Party delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a Bill in Parliament on the categorization of Scheduled Caste.

The decision to accept the Chief Minister's invitation was taken during a meeting held at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday. The meeting, chaired by Reddy, was attended by former PCC Presidents V Hanumantha Rao and Ponnala Lakshmaiah, MP Nandi Yellaiah, former Union Minister Sarve Satyanarayana, and MLA A Sampath Kumar.

Addressing a press conference later, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Congress had been fighting for the cause of SC categorisation since a long time. He recalled that a resolution was passed in the then united Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 2004 supporting SC categorisation.

A delegation led by the then Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy made a representation to the then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Union Minister for Social Justice Meira Kumar. Subsequently, the Centre constituted Justice Usha Mehra Commission to study the issue of classification of SCs.

The TPCC chief said that the Congress party had been pursuing SC categorisation issue vigorously ever since the formation of Telangana. He also said that Congress MLA Sampath Kumar, along with other SC MLAs, raised the issue in the State Assembly and even faced suspension for stalling the proceedings of the House.

He said that the Chief Minister should not confine himself to submission of a memorandum but must pressurise the Centre for introduction and passing of the SC Categorisation Bill in Parliament.