HYDERABAD: MRPS supremo Mandakrishna Madiga has made a humble appeal to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to take the issue of SC categorization on his shoulders and take an all-party delegation to New Delhi to make a push for categorization of SCs with the Centre without any further delay.
Mandakrishna also put the onus of taking the SC categorization issue to its logical end on Union Minister Kishan Reddy, as he was the union minister and had the will and power to do so.
Talking about Dalit Bandhu scheme, Mandakrishna implored Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to allot Rs 85,000 crore for the next two years to ground the scheme across the state, as Rs 1,70,000 crore were needed to cover all 17 lakh families of SCs across the state. He cautioned that these funds were supposed to be in addition to SC sub-plan funds, as announced by the chief minister.
In view of the deferred by-election to Huzurabad, he felt that there was ample time to ground the pilot project of the scheme covering 21,000 SC families in the constituency for which Rs 2000 crore has already been released.
Recalling how the SC community was taken for a ride regarding a Dalit chief minister and 3-acre land for Dalits that were promised by the chief minister but were not granted, he cautioned that this time around, the actions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will become a milestone and that that SCs were not ready to be cheated again.
Sitting alongside Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy after returning from New Delhi, he praised Reddy for standing by every effort of MRPS, whether it was regarding categorization of SCs, or for the welfare of the differently-abled and children with heart ailments.
Calling Reddy a brother, a dear friend and someone who he shares mutual trust with, Mandakrishna said that last month they had planned to meet Central ministers to push for categorization, when he accidentally fell and fractured his leg in the hotel he was staying. He recalled how Kishan Reddy took out time from his busy schedule to spend 2-3 hours everyday at the hispital and guest house where he was staying, just to ensure he was recovering and was safe.
Similar feelings were shared by Kishan Reddy, who praised Mandakrishna as a person who has selflessly led several movements for the upliftment of SCs not only in AP and Telangana, but had also worked across the south India for categorization of SCs.
"Even while admitted in the hospital, he was giving speeches on SC-categorization to whoever came to meet him. That shows his dedication for the cause. As a friend and as a minister, I wish he recovers soon," Kishan Reddy said.