With the Lok Sabha election around the corner, the Union government has chosen to constitute the most-recent National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) by ensuring the presence of at least one member from the Madiga community, one of the most populous Scheduled Caste communities in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The Ministry of Social Justice notified the appointees of their new positions through a letter on Saturday. BJP Gujarat spokesperson Kishor Makwana has been appointed the next NCSC Chairperson, whereas Vadepally Ramchander, of Telangana’s Peddapalli district, and Love Kush Kumar of Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district have been appointed as members.
Mr. Ramchander’s appointment comes on the heels of the government having formed an internal committee for sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes in response to the decades-long demand of the Madiga community in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The Madiga community has argued that despite being among the most populous of the SCs, they are routinely crowded out of benefits and reservation by the relatively dominant Mala community.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to look into the issue during a poll rally last year, the government had constituted a committee to look into the sub-categorisation demand for the benefit of all such communities that found themselves to be the most backward among SCs.
While the Supreme Court is yet to decide on whether SC quotas can be sub-categorised, the government committee is looking into ways of targeting benefits towards this section of the Scheduled Castes.
Mr. Ramchander has previously been the district president of the BJP in Peddapalli, worked with the Sangh Parivar, and has also contested local elections from the party previously
The new appointments to the NCSC come after the commission’s member Anju Bala and acting chairperson Arun Halder’s terms came to an end in February this year.
Last year in July, erstwhile chairperson of the commission and Punjab BJP leader Vijay Sampla had quit from the position citing personal reasons.
