Hyderabad: Finance minister T. Harish Rao on Sunday came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the delay in implementation of categorisation of Scheduled Castes.
He said the BRS government had passed resolutions twice in the Legislative Assembly urging the Centre for categorisation of SCs but the BJP government at the Centre ignored them.
Harish Rao was addressing the meeting of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS-Telangana) held at Indira Park. He said MRPS had been agitating for the categorisation of SCs since the 1990s but the successive governments had failed to take any steps to fulfil their demand.
The BJP is planning a campaign meeting featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 11 to press the demand for categorization of reservations.
Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had recognised the importance of the long-pending demand of SC categorisation and passed a resolution in the very first Assembly session of Telangana State in 2014 urging the Centre to take steps in this regard, Harish Rao said. "That is the commitment of the BRS government towards this issue. With no response from the Centre, the government passed a resolution for the second time in the Assembly and referred to the Centre. The CM sent the party's senior Dalit community leaders Kadiam Srihari and T. Rajaiah to Delhi to hand over resolution copies to ministers and officials. Later, CM himself handed over resolution copy to PM Modi. But all these attempts went in vain as there was no response from Centre," Harish Rao stated.
He listed several schemes being implemented by the BRS government for the welfare and development of the SC communities. He said Dalit Bandhu was a revolutionary scheme to extend Rs 10 lakh grant to every Dalit community family for their social and economic upliftment which was introduced by the CM in August 2021. The CM also established large number of residential schools and study centres for students and youths from the Dalit communities to pursue higher education and career opportunities.
Harish Rao also took part in Erukula community's Atma Gaurava Sabha in Kukatpally on Sunday. He said the BRS government introduced Erukula Empowerment Scheme with Rs 60 crore, which will be implemented in all the mandals.
He said that the CM had nominated Kurra Satyanarayana from Erukula community as MLC under Governor's quota to ensure their voice is heard in Legislature. He alleged that BJP with the support of Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan obstructed the approval for MLC nomination due to which it is lying pending since July 2023.
