Date:03/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/03/stories/2008050359421200.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Madiga leader refuses to call off fast

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Rejecting the Andhra Pradesh 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 by the promise made by the Andhra Pradesh 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 were expecting that Mr. Krishna would call off his fast after Ms. 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.