Kapu leader Mudragada Padmanabham is trying to create a law and order problem and the government will not tolerate violence in the guise of the padayatra, HRD Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao said here on Wednesday.
“Upholding law and order is the duty of the government. In view of the violence witnessed in the past, it has been decided not to allow the padayatra. We know who is behind Mr. Padmanabham. The government will not take a lenient view on the issue. The padayatra is not intended to benefit the community but to serve the political ambitions of the Kapu leader,” the Minister told the media.
Promises fulfilled
Appealing to the Kapu youth not to be carried away by Mr. Padmanabham’s propaganda of “welfare of the community,” Mr. Srinivasa Rao wondered what prompted the Kapu leader to launch an agitation when the Chief Minister had already fulfilled two of the three promises given to the community before the elections — giving Deputy CM post to a person from the Kapu community (N. Chinarajappa) and setting up Kapu Welfare Corporation.
Efforts were being made to fulfil the third promise of including the Kapus in the list of BCs. It was not that easy as it required legal sanction, the Minister said.
The Justice Manjunath Commission was constituted for this purpose and it was on the job. Mr. Srinivasa Rao said that Mr. Padmanabham had served as a Minister and an MLA in the past, and it was not as though he was unaware of the law. He wondered what had happened to ‘Kapu welfare’ at that time.
On his demand for issuance of a GO on Kapu reservations, the Minister recalled how such moves by various governments in the past had backfired with courts striking them down.
“We (TDP government) want to ensure legal sanctity and, therefore, initiated the process through the BC Commission. Did any other Chief Minister do so much to the Kapu community? The Kapu corporation was formed and given ₹1,000 crore for 2015-16. The Chief Minister has asked the Justice Manjunath Commission to submit its report early,” he said.
MLAs Panchakarla Ramesh Babu and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar were present.
‘Politically unemployed’
Staff Reporter in Tirupati writes: Minister for Backward Classes K. Atchannaidu said Mr. Padmanabham, being politically unemployed, was trying to trigger a caste war.
Speaking at the swearing-in of TUDA chairman G. Narasimha Yadav, the Minister termed the padayatra as a “desperate attempt by a politically-irrelevant person to hog the media limelight.”
He also accused the YSR Congress of clandestinely helping Mr. Padmanabham in creating unrest in the State.
To a query on whether the proposed reservations for the Kapus would harm the interests of the communities existing in the list of BCs, he said: “I am here in the Cabinet along with Yanamala Ramakrushnudu to take care of the interests of the BCs.”
