Former MLA accuses Congress govt of cheating Madigas in Telangana

Sandra Venkata Veeraiah says government failed to adhere to its declaration in the State Assembly that it will implement the Supreme Court verdict

Khammam: Former MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah accused the Congress government of meting out grave injustice to the Madiga community by ignoring the Supreme Court verdict on SC categorisation.

Speaking to the media here on Friday, he complained that even as Congress leaders were holding meetings demanding their government to categorise SCs, the government was not responding.

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The government failed to adhere to its declaration in the State Assembly that it would implement the Supreme Court verdict. Given the Congress’ stance on the issue, it looks like the party was against the SC categorisation, hence it would be considered an anti-Dalit party, Veeraiah said.

In addition to that, the Congress government was not giving posts to the Madigas. It betrayed them by not giving the Deputy Chief Minister post and the Speaker post. Of the two SC reserved Assembly seats, not even one seat was allotted to Madigas, he noted.

“The KCR government established 1,025 Gurukuls and residential institutions to uplift the SC community. But the Congress government was neglecting them. Giving top priority to Dalits, former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao introduced Dalit Bandhu,” he further said.

However, soon after coming to power, the Congress abandoned the scheme, besides weakening SC Corporation and SC/ST Sub-plans. “The iconic 125-ft BR Ambedkar statue, built and installed in Hyderabad as a landmark for the country by the BRS government, was neglected for nearly a year under the Congress rule, Veeraiah lamented.

Though the government announced that an additional Rs 1 lakh would be given to SCs and STs in the construction of Indiramma houses, but, in practice it was not implemented. Indiramma Athmeeya Bharosa should be extended to Dalits with land less than an acre, he demanded.

Veeraiah warned that if the Congress government did not stop its anti-Dalit measures, the BRS would mobilise the Madiga community to fight against it. He demanded immediate categorisation of SCs to ensure reservation in jobs and local bodies on a proportional basis. BRS leaders K Koteswara Rao, K Nagabhushanam, Qamar, Bellam Venugopal, Pagadala Nagaraju, Bommera Ramamurthy, S Veerabhadram, B Tirumala Rao, and others were present.