Congress Committed to Sub-categorisation of SCs, Assures Revanth

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said the Congress government was committed to implementing sub-categorisation of the Scheduled Castes community in the state in order to better provide reservations for the weakest among them. Reddy said that the issue was under the purview of the Centre and the Congress government will extend complete cooperation to the Centre in implementing SC sub-categorisation. 

Revanth Reddy felt that the Centre should sub-categorise SCs into groups without any delay and allow state governments to distribute reservation benefits in order to provide equitable social justice to all sub-castes within the SC communities.

Towards this, he held a meeting with the party's SC leaders here on Monday to discuss the issue in order to ensure justifiable reservations for all sub-castes in education and employment. Former MLA and AICC secretary S.A. Sampath Kumar, TPCC general secretary Charakonda Venkatesh, and other SC leaders were present in the meeting. 

Revanth Reddy said that the reservation policy was being implemented without special protection to the most backward castes within the SC community which was creating new inequalities in



education and employment among them.

The Dalit movement in the Telugu states has been divided into groups along the lines of new inequities. The shared list of SC communities, both advanced and backward, was establishing new disparities and leading to conflicts within them, he said. He pointed out that in every village, it was increasingly seen that Madiga, Relli, and Mehtar members remained backward when compared with the Mala community.

Citing the Justice Usha Mehra Commission's report, he said that 22 of the 59 Scheduled Castes in the Telugu states had seen no progress. The Madiga, Relli, and Mehtar community members were the most backward within SCs in the two states, he said. 

All the committees and commissions formed to investigate different concerns relating to the application of reservations to the SC communities had suggested that special reservations be granted to the most backward among them, he said. Revanth Reddy reminded that as the MP of Malkajgiri, he had raised this issue several times in the Lok Sabha and had strongly demanded the Centre to amend the constitution to sub-categorise the SC community into groups.