Centre to form task force to implement SC categorisation: Kishan Reddy

Mr.Reddy said the Solicitor General has moved the Supreme Court over the issue last month and a seven-member bench has been formed to look into SC categorisation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of forming a fresh committee on the Scheduled Castes (SC) categorisation at the public meeting organised by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) will actually be a task force to follow up the issue legally in the Supreme Court, hold discussions with various stakeholders and ensure speedy implementation of the same, clarified Telangana BJP president and Union Minister G.Kishan Reddy.

“The proposed task force will not look into whether categorisation is necessary or not; it will daily monitor the progress of case in the apex court. For the first time, the Central government has agreed to take up categorisation. Other political parties are making unnecessary comments about the constitution of another committee,” he told a media conference on Monday.

Mr.Reddy said the Solicitor General has moved the Supreme Court over the issue last month and a seven-member bench has been formed to look into SC categorisation. Notices have been issued to all interested parties who had filed petitions for and against to respond for hearing on December 14. The Supreme Court had earlier given two judgments at variance with each other, he informed.

Accusing the other political parties, including the Congress, of dilly-dallying on the issue raging on for over three decades, he hailed the decision of Mr.Modi to come and address the MRPS meeting, lending his solidarity to the cause, as unprecedented. “It is not a meeting organised by the party and not a government function, yet the Prime Minister spoke to the community as he was convinced about their cause. The SC categorisation is for social harmony and not against anybody,” the State BJP chief claimed.

Following MRPS founder Manda Krishna Madiga’s meeting with Mr.Modi during his visit to Warangal in July, he and other intellectuals from the community were called for a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi, upon which the Central government moved a petition in the SC to expedite the issue, he explained.

“The UPA government led by Congress party under Manmohan Singh formed an Usha Mehra committee but did not bother to study or implement the same on the issue. Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao promised to take an all-party delegation to the Centre to press for the issue but it was kept in cold storage. However, within five months, the PM has set the wheels of action into motion. This is our commitment to the cause. Everyone is aware that if Mr.Modi puts his mind to something, it will be done,” said the Minister.

The proposed task force will also have the authority to take up further steps legally to see to it that the SC categorisation is implemented, considering that the first committee set up to look into it was during Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s tenure, he added.