Centre Sets Up Committee to Examine SC Sub-Categorisation, Woo Disadvantaged Communities Ahead of Lok Sabha Polls

New Delhi: Eyeing disadvantaged communities votes during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led Centre has set up a high-level committee to examine the administrative steps that can be taken to safeguard the interests of Scheduled Caste (SC) communities like the Madigas and their sub-categorisation in the SC reservation.

The panel will also seek to ensure a fair allocation of benefits to the most disadvantaged communities within the SCs, which have been overshadowed by comparatively affluent and influential groups, sources said.

The formation of the committee comes two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba to expedite the formation of a committee for sub-categorisation in SC reservation for the community, mainly belonging to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

During an election rally on November 14, last year, organised by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) in Telangana, the PM had promised that the Centre will soon form a committee to address the community’s demand for sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes.

Four days later, on November 18, Union home minister Amit Shah held a meeting with over 1,000 Madiga representatives in the state and sought their support.

MRPS founder Manda Krishna Madiga urged various Madiga organisations to support the BJP during the Telangana Assembly polls last year.

Despite losing the Assembly elections to Congress in Telangana, the BJP is hoping to get a major chunk of votes from the southern state during the Lok Sabha elections for which support of Munnuru Kapu, Mudiraju and Madiga communities is crucial.

Madigas form nearly 50 per cent of the total SCs in Telangana of the total 15 per cent of the SC population (as per 2011 census). Their grievance is that the benefits of reservation under the SC category have been largely cornered by the Mala community and they have been left out.

"On the directions of the Prime Minister, a committee of secretaries has been constituted under the chairmanship of Cabinet secretary. The committee will examine the administrative steps that can be taken to safeguard the interests of the Scheduled Caste communities, like the Madigas and other such groups, who have claimed that they are not getting their due share of benefits evenly," sources said.

The committee will comprise secretaries of the ministry of home affairs, the department of personnel and training, the ministry of tribal affairs, the department of legal affairs and the department of social justice and empowerment. The first meeting of the committee of secretaries will take place on Tuesday, it is learnt.

The government has been in receipt of representations from state governments, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka for the sub-categorisation of SCs, which includes the Madiga community, on the grounds that the benefits of reservation and welfare and developmental schemes are not percolating evenly among them. The matter has been placed before various courts of law and is at present under consideration of a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court.