The Hindu : Front Page : Manda Krishna refuses to end fast

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Manda Krishna refuses to end fast

Special Correspondent

— Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Resolute stand: MRPS leader Krishna Madiga being comforted by his wife on the eighth day of his fast on Friday in Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD: Rejecting the Government’s assurances on implementation of Usha Mehra Commission’s report, Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) president Manda Krishna refused to call off his eight-day old indefinite fast on Friday.

The MRPS leader said he was not fully convinced of the promise made by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, after a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, that reservations for the Scheduled Castes on the basis of A, B, C, D categories would be implemented from the coming academic year.

The Government as well as the MRPS cadres at the hunger strike camp at Lakshmi Nagar in Secunderabad were expecting that Mr. Krishna would call off his fast after Justice Usha Mehra submitted her report to Union Minister for Social Justice Meira Kumar on Thursday favouring SC categorisation. But the Madiga leader remained unrelenting.

He told The Hindu that his goal was to get justice for the Madiga community.

Firm on goal

“We have suffered enough and at this juncture I simply cannot give up. We will call off our struggle only after an assurance from Dr. Rajasekhara Reddy that a Bill giving effect to SC categorisation would be introduced in Parliament and reservations implemented from the current academic year,” he said.

A delegation comprising MLC D. Rajeshwar Rao and MRPS leaders Devaiah and Regati Satyam met Minister for Municipal Administration Koneru Ranga Rao twice in the day.

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