The Telangana government will promulgate ordinance, if necessary, to implement the reservations for the sub-castes of scheduled castes, in accordance with the Supreme Court verdict on SC sub-classification, chief minister A Revanth Reddy announced on Thursday.
“The government will also take appropriate measures to implement the reservations for Madiga and Mala sub-castes in the job notifications issued recently. If necessary, we shall promulgate an ordinance in this direction,” Revanth Reddy said, adding that the state government would take a decision soon on the categorisation of SCs into four sub-groups – A, B, C and D.
On Thursday, a seven-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud upheld the classification of SCs into sub-groups for implementation of reservations in education and employment.
Reddy said that no efforts were made during the previous Bharata Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government on representing the case in the Supreme Court. “When our former MLA A Sampath Kumar sought to raise the SC categorisation issue in the state assembly through an adjournment motion, he was suspended from the House,” he said.
Soon after the Congress came to power in December 2023, deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and state health minister Damodara Raja Narasimha had sent the state advocate general to the apex court to argue the case on behalf of the state government on December 23, 2023.
{{/usCountry}}Soon after the Congress came to power in December 2023, deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and state health minister Damodara Raja Narasimha had sent the state advocate general to the apex court to argue the case on behalf of the state government on December 23, 2023.
{{/usCountry}}“The ministers took up the issue with the legal experts and made them present a strong case on the SC categorisation in the Supreme Court. Our efforts paid off ultimately and the Supreme Court gave the judgement in favour of categorisation,” the chief minister said as he thanked the apex court in resolving the long pending issue.
BRS working president KT Rama Rao welcomed the Supreme Court judgement on SC categorisation. “Right from the beginning, our party made a sincere effort to achieve the categorisation. When we were in power, we adopted a resolution in the state assembly in favour of the SC categorisation and sent it to the Centre,” he said.
He recalled that BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) personally gave a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in support of SC categorisation. “While other political parties took a dual stand on the categorisation issue, only KCR had viewed the issue in the angle of social justice. He was of the view that the demand for SC categorisation was as genuine as the demand for separate Telangana state,” he said.
KTR demanded that the Congress government in the state should immediately begin the exercise for implementation of the SC categorisation, as per the Supreme Court verdict. “The BRS will extend all its cooperation to the state government in this regard,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party has decided against making any comments on the Supreme Court verdict on SC reservations. A senior party leader said Telangana state BJP president G Kishan Reddy asked the party leaders not to make any statements on the issue till the central party leadership officially declared its stand.
Telugu Desam Party general secretary and Andhra Pradesh state IT minister Nara Lokesh also welcomed the Supreme Court judgement on SC categorisation.
He reminded that it was the TDP government, led by N Chandrababu Naidu, which had issued an ordinance in 1999 itself, categorising SCs into four sub-groups, that led to Madigas getting jobs. “We are committed to implementing the SC reservations again, as per the Supreme Court verdict. Our agenda is to ensure political and economic empowerment of all sections of society,” he said.