Coalition govt stoking division among BC communities

Tadepalli, September 16: Former Minister and East Godavari District YSRCP President Chelluboina Venugopala Krishna lashed out at the coalition government for deliberately creating discord among Backward Class communities to gain political mileage. Addressing the media at the YSRCP central office, he said Minister Vasamshetty Subhash has provoked unrest among united Geetha communities by declaring that he would implement the controversial G.O. 16.
He reminded that G.O. 16 was issued in 1997 during Chandrababu Naidu’s regime, based on a proposal by Gouthu Lachanna, but was suspended following strong protests from the Settibalija community. “Reviving this decades-old dispute and tampering with caste certificates is nothing but an attempt to pit BC groups against each other,” he asserted.
Over the past two months, caste certificates issued to Settibalijas have been manipulated, first shown as ‘Goud,’ with community names like Settibalija, Ediga, Srisayana, Yata, and Sigidi placed in brackets. This sparked fresh unrest. Subhash kept changing his stand, first calling it a technical glitch, then promising to resolve it, and later claiming YSRCP’s 2023 memo was responsible. Srinivasa Venugopala Krishna clarified that YSRCP had already put that memo on hold after objections and later issued G.O. 25 (10.11.2023), ensuring Settibalijas’ rights without the ‘Goud’ prefix.
“Subhash is misleading people to cover up his government’s blunders. The coalition is using divisive politics to fracture BC unity. Minister Subhash must apologise to the Geetha communities for his irresponsible remarks and actions,” he demanded.