Internal SC quota: State govt may write to Centre for approval

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The State government is mulling proposing to the Union government to approve the implementation of the Sadashiva Commission report which recommends internal sub-categorisation under the Scheduled Caste (SC) quota for different groups of Dalits in proportion to their share in the population.

In a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, multiple Dalit ministers are said to have expressed a favourable opinion of writing to the Centre over the issue.

Meanwhile, other Cabinet members believe bringing up the contentious issue may backfire on the Congress in the lead up to the Lok Sabha elections.

The erstwhile BJP State government in Karnataka had effectively rejected the Sadashiva Commission’s recommendations but accepted some suggestions of a Cabinet sub-committee on the issue and relayed the directions to the Centre.

In a way, the Basavaraja Bommai administration had partially accepted the report.

Back in November, Home Minister G Parameshwara, Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa and Food and Civil Supplies Minister K H Muniyappa had lobbied with the CM so that the report was accepted.

In fact, Muniyappa, a seven-time MP from Kolar, who comes from the Madiga caste, had earlier called for state-wide protests if the report was not implemented.

The Sadashiva Commission was set up back in 2005 under the Congress-JD(S) coalition government led by Dharam Singh and was finally submitted to the BJP government in 2012.

The report concluded that ritually right-hand Dalits namely Holeyas alongside “touchable” nomadic SCs like Bhovis and Lambanis had been cornering the quota.

It had added that ritually left hand Dalits like Madigas, apart from smaller castes had been deprived. There are a total of 101 castes under the 15 per cent SC quota in Karnataka right now.