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Telangana Becomes First State To Implement SC Categorisation After Supreme Court Verdict On August 1, 2024. Speaking on Ambedkar Jayanthi at the Telangana Secretariat, I along with Ministers Damodar Rajanarsimha Cilarapu and Ponnam Prabhakar and MP Porika Balram Naik , emphasised on how the Congress Government had transformed a long-pending demand into law through a transparent and legally sound process. We have officially released the Government Order today and handed over the first copy to Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy . The categorisation of SCs has been a matter of long-standing discussion in the Assembly across all parties, but no Govt. had the courage or commitment to act on it. It was only after our government came to power that the process was set in motion. The Govt. had issued three key Government Orders to operationalise SC categorisation: G.O.Ms. No. 9 and G.O.Ms. No. 10 of the Scheduled Castes Development Department, and G.O.Ms. No. 99 of the General Administration Department. All three Government Orders dated April 14, 2025 were issued. While G.O. No. 9 notified the SC (Rationalisation of Reservations) Act, 2025, G.O. No. 10 contained the detailed implementation rules. G.O. No. 99 issued instructions for applying these reservations in Government Services. The Congress Government has done what no other party could. All parties extended verbal support for SC categorisation, but none took it to implementation. We have done it legally, inclusively, and with full preparedness. The new categorisation would not apply to recruitment notifications issued before August 1, 2024, the date of the Supreme Court’s ruling. We did not issue any new job notification after that date so we could legally implement categorisation. Now that the framework is in place, the Chief Secretary and all departments had been instructed to issue fresh notifications from Tuesday onwards. Within just two to three hours of the Supreme Court delivering its judgment on August 1, 2024, the Congress Government in Telangana had made a firm decision to implement SC categorisation without any delay. Our Government was unanimous in its view that the court verdict must be translated into immediate action. A Cabinet Sub-Committee was promptly constituted to give shape to Rahul Gandhi 's vision of social justice and ensure that the most marginalised among SC communities received their due share. I credit the visionary leadership of Rahul Gandhi for making this Act possible. Rahul Gandhi’s firm stand on social justice and his consistent support for marginalised communities laid the ideological foundation for this bold step. His commitment to equitable development empowered the Congress Government in Telangana to carry this Act forward with moral clarity and political conviction. The Act, unanimously passed by the Telangana Legislative Assembly on March 18 and approved by the Governor, reorganised the existing 15% SC reservation into three distinct groups based on the socio-economic status of SC sub-castes: •Group I, the most disadvantaged 15 sub-castes (3.288% of SC population), received 1% reservation. •Group II, with 18 moderately represented sub-castes (62.74% of the population), was allotted 9%. •Group III, comprising 26 relatively better-off sub-castes (33.963%), received 5%. The government would constitute a State-level Monitoring Committee to supervise the implementation. Importantly, the Congress Government rejected the proposal to introduce a creamy layer, ensuring that no SC group would be excluded based on income or occupation. We are here to ensure justice, not exclusion. Our aim is to balance the benefits fairly among all groups while preserving everyone’s rights. While the 15% SC quota was based on the 2011 Census, the SC population in Telangana was now estimated to be around 17.5%. With the rules now in effect and institutional machinery set in motion, Telangana has taken a bold and pioneering step toward equitable justice within the Scheduled Castes, setting a new benchmark for affirmative action backed by legal, social, and political will.