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A Committee of Secretaries has been constituted under the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba as the chairperson, to examine the administrative steps that can be taken to safeguard the interests of Scheduled Castes, government sources said.
This came after Scheduled Caste communities like the Madigas and other such groups represented that they were not getting their due share of benefits evenly. The Committee comprises the Secretaries of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Personnel and Training, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, the Department of Legal Affairs and the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment. The first meeting of the Committee of Secretaries is fixed for January 23, government sources said. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will provide necessary secretarial support to the committee. Earlier, the meeting was scheduled for January 22. However, since offices have been closed on that day owing to the Pran Pratishtha ceremony at Ayodhya, the meeting has now been postponed to January 23. The central government has received representations from state governments including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka for sub-categorization of SCs, including the Madiga community, stating that the benefits of reservation and welfare or developmental schemes meant for Scheduled Castes are not percolating evenly among the Scheduled Caste communities. The matter was placed before various courts of law and is at present under the consideration of a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, government sources said. (ANI)
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