Ram Shankar Katheria elected as

New Delhi, May 31: The Centre nominated former Union minister Ram Shankar Katheria and national secretary of the BJP's SC Morcha L Murugan as the chairman and the vice- chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes respectively.

The Prime Minister's Office cleared the names for the posts and those have been sent for the President's approval.

"Once the President gives his assent, these will be notified," an official in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said Katheria, a BJP MP from Agra who is accused of forging his graduation and post-graduation mark sheets, was dropped from the Union council of ministers in July 2016.

He had courted a controversy in February 2016 for his alleged hate speech. The MP strongly denied all the allegations. The government has also decided to nominate K Ramulu from Telangana, Yogeshwar Paswan from Bihar and Swaraj Vidwan from Uttarakhand as members of the commission.