Telangana Assembly polls: PM Modi asks officials to explore options on Madiga quota issue

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has instructed officials to explore the sub-categorisation for the Madiga community under the Scheduled Castes reservations be expedited.

The instructions were issued during a meeting in Delhi on Friday. It was attended by top government officials including the cabinet secretary.  

The developments follow BJP’s attempts to woo the Madigas, a sub-castes within the Dalit community in the poll-bound Telangana. 

Prime Minister Modi had earlier this month addressed a rally organised by Madiga Reservation Poratha Samithi, and announced that the Centre would soon form a committee that would look into the demands of the community including the categorisation of SCs.

Madigas along with 50 other communities in Telangana have been seeking division in the SC quota claiming that the majority of the benefits have been enjoyed by Malas, the other dominant SC sub-caste. 

A seven-member constitutional bench of the Supreme Court is currently looking into the issue of schedule caste sub-categorisation which was first implemented in Punjab in 1975.