PM Modi asks to expedite formation of committee for SC quota for Madiga

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday directed Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and other senior officials to expedite the formation of a committee to speed up the process of sub-categorisation in Scheduled Castes reservation for Madiga community, officials sources said.

His initiative came days after he had announced at a rally organised by the Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) in poll-bound Telangana that the Centre would soon form a committee that would adopt all possible ways for empowering Madigas with regard to their demand for sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes.

Madigas are a big constituent of the Scheduled Castes in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

The MRPS has been fighting for the categorisation of SCs since the last three decades on the grounds that the fruits of reservations and others have not reached them.

The BJP has stood with them in every struggle since the last three decades, Modi had said.

"We are committed to ending this injustice at the earliest...It is our promise that we will soon constitute a committee that will adopt all possible ways for empowering you. You and we also know that a big legal process is going on in the Supreme Court. We consider your struggle to be just," he had said.

Telangana is going to the assembly polls on November 30.

The ruling BRS, the Congress and the BJP are locked in a keen fight, with the saffron party making a determined push to emerge as a strong force in the southern state.