The Telangana state assembly on Tuesday adopted the report of Justice Shamim Akhtar, the one-member commission on the categorisation of Scheduled Castes into three sub-categories, seeking to extend the benefits of reservations to them in proportionate to the percentage of their population.
Tabling the report in the state assembly, Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy said the government has accepted all the recommendations of the Justice Akthar Commission, except the one to exclude the creamy layer among the SCs from benefiting from reservations.
“Today is the most memorable day in my life, as the Congress government has fulfilled two of its major promises – conducting the caste survey and categorisation of SCs,” he said.
The major recommendations of the commission include dividing the 59 Scheduled Castes into three groups based on their social, economic, and educational status. Group-I includes as many as 15 sub-castes which are the most backward and neglected castes, accounting for 3.288% and the commission recommended that they should receive 1% reservation.
Group-II consists of 18 moderately benefited sub-castes of SCs with a population of 62.748% and they would get 9% reservation; and Group-III includes as many as 26 better-benefited sub-castes of SCs accounting for 33.963% of the SC population and they should be allocated 5% quota.
Revanth Reddy claimed that Telangana is the first state in the country to implement the judgment of the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on the sub-categorization of SCs, delivered on August 1, 2024. “We adopted a resolution in the state assembly on the same day, pledging our commitment to the implementation of the SC categorisation,” he said.
He said in order to avoid any legal hurdles, the state government constituted a cabinet sub-committee headed by irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on September 12, 2024, to examine the Supreme Court’s judgment and suggest a way forward.
“The committee studied the sub-caste classification processes in other states like Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu and received legal advice from the State Law Secretary and Advocate General. Based on its report, the government constituted the one-man commission under Dr Justice Shamim Akhtar on October 11, 2024,” he said.
The chief minister reaffirmed that the government is committed to implementing the recommendations of the commission and ensuring that the benefits of the SC classification reach those who have long been waiting for such measures.