Backward Classes Commission chairman’s term extended till Jan 31

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: K Jayaprakash Hegde’s ter m as Kar nataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSCBC) chairman has been extended until January 31 in a move that was widely expected.

His term was supposed to expire on November 25. Initially, it was guessed that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would receive the much debated caste census before Hegde’s term expired.

The Karnataka SocioEconomic and Education Survey, otherwise known as the Kantharaju Commission was constituted in April 2015 during Siddaramaiah’s first term under then KSCBC Chairperson H Kantharaj for an estimated Rs 162 crore.

However, once the Backward Classes (BC) Kuruba leader lost power in 2018, the report was put aside. Siddaramaiah had even blamed successive CMs for ignoring the report.

Hegde’s five colleagues and members of the KSCBC have also been retained for the same time period. These include Kalyankumar HS, Rajashekhar BS, Arun Kumar, KT Suvarna and Sharada Nayaka.

Hegde himself had come under the scanner for his October 2021 letter to the State government about the survey's original “worksheet” copy missing.

He has since insisted that the missing copy didn’t imply missing data, adding that the data was uploaded in the system and it is safe.

The issue is the alleged leaks from the Kantharaju Commission report seem to suggest that the two most politically dominant communities in the state – Lingayats and Vokkaligas – were now outnumbered by Dalits and Muslims, both communities with fewer resources and political heft.