K'taka govt gives nod to internal reservation among SCs

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The Karnataka cabinet on Monday gave its consent for providing internal reservation among Scheduled Castes (SC) and decided to constitute a commission that will be tasked with collecting empirical data. The commission will be constituted under a retired High Court judge, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil told reporters after the Cabinet meeting. "Regarding providing internal reservation among SC there were demands, discussions and thinking, in Karnataka.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's recent verdict regarding internal reservation among SCs, the cabinet today gave its approval to provide internal reservation among SCs," Patil said. "....after obtaining the data, it has been decided to decide on the next course of action. The government will ask the committee to submit the report in three months," he said. Patil said the cabinet also decided to postpone upcoming recruitments for at least three months until the commission submits its report. "From today if any recruitment is to be notified, that process will not take place, it will only start after the commission submits its report," he said.

Just ahead of the assembly polls, the previous BJP government's cabinet had taken a decision on internal reservation, by recommending a six per cent internal quota for SC (Left), 5.5 per cent for SC (Right), 4.5 per cent for "touchables" (Banjara, Bhovi, Korcha, Kuruma etc) and one per cent for others. In a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on August 1 held that states are constitutionally empowered to make subclassifications within the Scheduled Castes.