The Hindu : Front Page : All-party team seeks amendment to scheduled castes categorisation

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Friday, Aug 12, 2005

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All-party team seeks amendment to scheduled castes categorisation

Special Correspondent

Move to ensure social justice, not to divide castes, say political leaders

NEW DELHI: Seeking an amendment to the Constitution and provision for categorisation of reservation for scheduled castes, an all-party delegation from Andhra Pradesh on Thursday called on the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and leaders of various political parties for early legislation.

Leading the delegation, the Andhra Pradesh Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Koneru Ranga Rao, said they impressed upon these leaders the need to bring a Bill at the earliest to make suitable amendment to Article 341 by introducing sub-section 3 that would give the States powers to make suitable laws for social justice.

The move is to ensure social justice and not to divide castes," Mr. Rao said at a press conference. He said the all-party delegation reflected the all-round acceptance of the measure following the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservation) Act 2000. Subsequently, the State legislature had adopted a unanimous resolution during December last year to impress upon the Centre the need to bring Central legislation/Constitutional amendment for A, B, C and D categorisation of SC reservation. The amendment would enable the State to effect grouping sub-classification of the castes mentioned in the list of SCs.

In a memorandum, the delegation said 59 castes were identified as backward and included in the list of scheduled castes appended to the Constitution. The population of SCs in the State according to 2001 Census stood at 123 lakhs of which 58 lakhs were Madigas and some 48 lakh Malas.

Meets top leaders

Besides the Prime Minister, the delegation met the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, the Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, L.K. Advani, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary, Prakash Karat, the CPI Parliamentary Party leaders and Union Minister for Social Justice, Meira Kumar, in pursuance of their demand.

Mr. Rao said the leaders gave a sympathetic hearing with promise to discuss the issue in the party. Others in the delegation included the State Minister for Lift Irrigation, M. Mareppa, the former State Minister, Kadiam Srihari, Kamireddy Ramulu (Janata Party), Chada Venkat Reddy (CPI), Nomula Narasimhaiah (CPI-M), Manika Vara Prasad Rao, D.K. Aruna (SP), A. Chandra Sekhar and C. Narsi Reddy.

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