A Telugu-speaking social activist of Odisha’s Malkangiri district has filed a PIl in the Odisha High Court seeking the court’s intervention to declare the Konda Reddy community as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) community.
Fifty-six-year-old R Srinivas Rao has filed the PIl under Articles 226 and 227 of the Indian Constitution making both the Union and the State Governments respondents in his petition. Rao in his petition has said that the neighbouring State of Andhra Pradesh has already included the Konda Reddy community in the ST list and a notification to this effect has already been made.
The petition further alleged that the Odisha Government is deliberately neglecting the community and ignoring the repeated pleas of the people of the community. The PIl, however, has not been admitted by the High Court yet, said the petitioner’s advocate KC Rout.