Telangana caste survey: Lingayats in fix after being listed in BC, OC categories

Hyderabad, Nov 13: Socio-economic survey has raised hackles among a section of people over the gathering of personal information. Opposition BRS has joined the chorus to flay the exercise.

What has, however, created a big confusion was listing `Lingayat’ in BC and OC categories.

Among the various castes under survey is the Veerashaiva Lingayat / Lingabalija community which has been given code 115 and listed in BC D group in the list of backward castes notified by the government.

In the same booklet carried by enumerators, another Lingayat community with code 011 OC (other castes) or forward caste is mentioned, creating a stir among the community members.

TVLF stumped

Stumped at the `wrong listing’, former MP and Telangana Veerashaiva Lingayat Federation (TVLF) chairman BB Patil, an apex body of over 175 organizations of the community in Telangana petitioned Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, Telangana State BC Commission chairman G Niranjan with a request to delete `Lingayat’ community with code 011 in OC category and retain only Veerashaiva Lingayat/Lingabalija BC D Group, which has been officially recognized in the State.

However, Minister Ponnam Prabhakar and senior officials expressed helplessness at this juncture since it has been listed in the books given to enumerators and requested the community members to caution their members!

TVLF vice chairman Madapu Veeramallesh, President B Hanumanthu, and General Secretary Malkapuram Shivakumar met Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, BC Commission chairman G Niranjan and others with a request to delete “Lingayat OC with code 011 from the list and ensure only Veerashaiva Lingayat/Lingabalija which is the recognized community in Telangana State. Any wrong mention could lead to the denial of government benefits/schemes in various sectors including education.

“We were stumped at the listing of just the Lingayat community. It did not exist since Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy listed Veerashaiva Lingayat/Linga Balija in the list of backward classes in D Group. No one can answer as to how it has been listed among the list of castes now,” M Shiva Kumar, TVLF General Secretary and District Cooperative Marketing Societies Chairman, combined Medak district told Newsmeter.

Madapu Veeramallesh said the community faced similar problems in the past leading to a drastic reduction in its population in official records.

“In the past surveys, especially during KCR rule, the community members listed Balija, etc. whom they are called locally in villages instead of officially listed Veerashaiva Lingayat / Lingabalija. This led to low population which is not the case.”

He added, “In fact, there is only Veerashaiva Lingayat community in Telangana State. Lingabalijas are known in the Rayalaseema region including Pulivendla, Kadapa hence it was added by YSR in undivided AP.”

40 lakh Veerashaiva Lingayat

There are nearly 40 lakh Veerashaiva Lingayat / Lingabalijas, a veggie community, across Telangana, a big chunk of them in undivided Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Nalgonda and Hyderabad district.

In the country, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh have a large Veerashaiva Lingayat population besides other states.

In various GOs in undivided Andhra Pradesh and after the bifurcation of the State and formation of Telangana, Veerashaiva Lingayat / Lingabalija is listed in the BC D group.

In the GOMs No. 3 of Backward Classes Welfare (B) department dated 9.9.2020 in the list of socially and educationally backward classes for Telangana State, they are listed at No 46.

Though the community was included in the BC D Group way back in 2009 by late Chief Minister Dr. Y S Rajasekhar Reddy at the request of community members including present Zaheerabad MP Suresh Shetkar and others like Jukkal ex-MLA Gangaram Soudagar, it is now facing a new problem.

Enumerators undertaking door-to-door surveys as facing daunting questions from the households. An enumerator narrated an incident in Sangareddy. “The households asked what additional benefits they get if they provided information. I told them that the survey is aimed at ensuring benefits to all the deprived sections. They are not satisfied,” she said.

The questionnaire contains assigned codes to a total of 243 castes including upper castes. The family is supposed to indicate the code number corresponding to their caste in the questionnaire.

According to the booklet, there are 59 castes given codes in the SC category, 32 in the ST category, 18 in the OC (other castes) category, and the remaining in the BC sub-categories of A, B, C, D, and E.

Backward Class codes are highest in number with 134 while Jains and Buddhists are classified as forward castes. Christian converts from Scheduled Castes have also been categorized as BC-C etc.

According to another enumerator, large-scale inter-caste marriages took place in the past decade and more are taking place in the State, especially in urban areas and metro cities like Hyderabad. Choosing caste has also become tricky in such cases.