MP Minister Given Clean Chit On Caste Row By Scrutiny Committee
The scrutiny committee had summoned the minister to be present before it with necessary documents to establish that Bagri caste falls under the SC category, following a directive by the Madhya Pradesh high court.
Bhopal: The scrutiny committee of the Madhya Pradesh government has given a clean chit to minister of state for urban administration and housing development Pratima Bagri by upholding her scheduled caste (SC) certificate.
The scrutiny committee had summoned the minister to be present before it with necessary documents to establish that Bagri caste falls under the SC category, following a directive by the Madhya Pradesh high court.
Congress leader Pradeep Ahirwar had earlier moved the Madhya Pradesh high court questioning the minister’s caste status alleging that Bagri does belong to SC since the community maintains social and marital relations with the Rajputs.
Following this, the Madhya Pradesh high court had directed the state scrutiny committee to examine the case and submit a report to it within 60 days.
The Congress leader had alleged that the minister had taken undue advantage of an SC certificate to win the elections in the Raigaon (reserved) Assembly seat in Satna district in the state in 2023.
The minister submitted her family records dating back more than 110 years before the scrutiny committee to establish that she belongs to SC.
During the examination, the scrutiny committee found that the Bagri community has no social, or marital relations with the Rajputs and upheld the SC certificate issued to her.
The committee has also gone into references of the caste in the records available with the state tribal research institute on the anthropology of the Bagri community (2002-03) which helped it to establish that Bagri community has no ‘roti beti ka rishta’ (kinship) with the Rajputs.
