The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Madiga leaders root for classification

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Madiga leaders root for classification

Special Correspondent

Government not providing funds to SC Corporation: RPI
Party wants reservations for SCs in Ph.D programmes

TIRUPATI: Representatives of the Madiga sect (Chamars), which is spearheading a campaign for the categorization of the Scheduled Castes into A.B, C and D categories, have on Saturday called on Bhuta Singh, Chairman of the National Commission on Scheduled Castes who held a sitting here to review the implementation of the rule of reservation for the SCs in the field of education and employment.

Commission report

The representatives of the Madiga community, in their representation, urged Bhuta Singh to give ‘clearance’ on behalf of the Commission to help the Government of India introduce a Bill in the Parliament providing for categorization of the SCs.

Representations

They also brought to the notice of the Panel Chairman that the Justice Usha Mehra Commission which was asked to go into the issue also had submitted its report to the State government recommending categorization of the SCs.

Singh received the representations and gave a patient hearing to the leaders as they explained in detail the entire genesis of the controversy. He promised to look into their request.

The Chittoor district unit of the Republican Party of India (RPI) once again stirred up the ‘Dalita Govindam’ controversy by seeking the National Commission’s intervention into the alleged ‘discrimination’ shown by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) authorities to the deities taken into the dalit wadas last year as part of the much-publicised ‘Dalita Govindam’ programme.

The RPI demanded that the idols also be installed inside the sanctum sanctorum along with the other idols to show that everybody was equal before god.

The RPI also brought to the notice of the SC Commission chief that the AP State Scheduled Castes Corporation was now in a limbo with the government not providing it any funds and, what is more, diverting its funds to other departments.

Backlog posts

Another demand of the RPI was to earmark a percentage for SCs in registration of candidates for Ph.Ds in the universities.

They also sought the Commission’s intervention in filling up the SC backlog posts remaining unfilled for years in the TTD, Sri Venkateswara University and four other universities located at Tirupati.

District Collector, Chittoor M. Ravindra was also present with Bhuta Singh during the review meeting.

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