Telangana Congress To Fully Support SC Categorisation Agitat

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy announced his party's complete support to the agitation by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) seeking the categorization of Scheduled Castes.

Speaking in an all-party meeting organised by the MRPS at the Somajiguda Press Club on Monday, Reddy said that he would also take up the issue with Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

Stating that the Madigas were the largest community in Telangana, he said that it was the duty of all political leaders to get justice for the community, and suggested that the Communist Party of India take the initiative of taking an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.

Reddy slammed Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao for not honouring the assurance given on the floor of the Assembly of taking an all-party delegation to the Prime Minister on the issue. He also said that he was unable to understand why the Prime Minister was not giving an appointment to meet an all-party delegation on such an important issue.

"KCR and Modi are one and the same. If the Prime Minister was busy in Delhi, then KCR should have arranged for an all-party interaction with him during his visit to Hyderabad. They had time to spend for programmes with Ivanka Trump and inaugurate sundry things, but were too busy to spend a few minutes on a major issue like SC categorization," he said.

"KCR blindly supported all major decisions of Modi like demonetization and GST. He also supported BJP candidates for the posts of President and Vice-President. However, when it comes to an appointment on SC categorization, the Prime Minister is said to be rejecting the request. Even TRS MPs are silent on the issue and do not raise it in Parliament. It clearly shows that neither the TRS nor the PM are serious on the issue," he added.

Reddy said that the Congress had been supporting SC categorization since the beginning. He said that a resolution had been passed in the then united Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Later, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted the Justice Usha Mehra Commission which had given a favourable report. He said that the Congress had again supported the resolution moved in the Telangana Assembly on the issue. The reason the issue was still not moving ahead was that the TRS was not showing any seriousness about it, he claimed.

He also slammed the Chief Minister for mistreating MRPS chief Manda Krishna Madiga. "The MRPS and Madiga played an active role in the Telangana statehood agitation. Instead of felicitating and honouring a leader like Madiga, the KCR government is putting him behind bars just to suppress his agitation for SC categorization," Reddy said.

The TPCC chief said that democracy was in danger in Telangana. He said protests in any form were not being permitted by the TRS government. "We have an arrogant CM, ignorant ministers, irresponsive administration and irresponsible police. To whom should we complain of any atrocities or injustices?" he asked.

Citing an instance, he said that the victims of the Nerella incident were still awaiting justice as they could not even get an FIR registered against the police personnel under the SC, ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act. He said that even the case filed in a court was not listed for hearing.

The all-party meeting was also addressed by MPRS leader Krishna Madiga, Telangana BJP president Dr K Laxman, Telangana TDP President L Ramana, CPI state secretary Chada Venkat Reddy, balladeer Gaddar, TJAC Chairman M Kodandaram and other leaders.