PTI | | Posted by Pathi Venkata Thadhagath
The Karnataka government on Tuesday constituted a five-member cabinet sub-committee to make recommendations on providing internal reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC). Internal reservation among SCs has been a long standing demand from these communities, and this move by the government has come five months ahead of assembly polls in Karnataka.
Headed by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy, the sub-committee consists of Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, Fisheries Minister S Angara, Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan and Health Minister K Sudhakar. Karjol, Angara and Chauhan are from the SC community. The sub-committee is expected to go through Justice A J Sadashiva Commission report, which had recommended internal reservation for communities among the Scheduled Castes. The Commission, which looked into methods of equitable distribution of reservation facilities among SCs, in its report submitted to the government in 2012, has recommended internal reservation among the castes by broadly reclassifying all the 101 castes into four groups (Right, Left, Touchables and other SCs). A large-scale protest was held in the city on Sunday, seeking implementation of the Justice Sadashiva Commission report . The internal reservation demand has resurfaced following the Karnataka government’s recent decision increasing the SC/ST reservation in the state. Reservation for SCs was increased from 15 to 17 per cent and for STs from three to seven per cent.
Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah had recently said that “Once we come back to power, Congress will take everyone into confidence and send the recommendation to the Central government to implement the Justice Sadashiva Commission report.” It was said that Siddaramaiah led Congress government’s (2012-18) “inaction” in implementing the report had angered the SC-Left, who feel that the reservation’s benefits are largely enjoyed by the SC-Right, and it had led to the community (SC-Left) moving away from the Congress during 2018 assembly polls, contributing to its polls debacle. There are also reports of some apprehensions within the ruling BJP regarding internal reservation’s “benefit” for the party, as some sections among SC like touchable Dalits (Lambanis and Bhovis among others) are said to be not in its favour, fearing that it may affect their prospects.