CM Siddaramaiah sandwiched as anti-caste survey agitation brews in Karnataka | India News

File photograph: CM Siddaramaiah (Photo: ANI)

BENGALURU: Congress’s determination to undertake a brand new caste survey in Karnataka has left the Siddaramaiah authorities sandwiched between a bit of backward lessons apprehensive of dropping their purported benefit of numbers in the Kantharaj Commission’s report and dominant communities like Lingayats and Vokkaligas that search re-enumeration.This rising divergence over the upcoming “socio-economic and educational survey” comes days after CM Siddaramaiah’s seemingly reluctant acceptance of what he stated was the Congress brass’s name quite than his authorities’s.Some OBC representatives have been urging the state authorities to implement the suggestions of the unique caste survey report, submitted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backwards Classes final 12 months.Data collated by the Kantharaj Commission is claimed to favour OBCs, particularly communities just like the Kurubas that have been categorized below a separate 1-B class with 12% reservation. The report additionally proposes doubling the reservation for Muslims from 4% to eight%, which some nonetheless deem inadequate. The Shoshitha Vargagala Maha Okkota, which represents “oppressed” OBCs, backwards lessons and minorities, has threatened a statewide agitation towards the proposed new census.Okay Ramachadrappa, its president and former head of Karnataka Pradesha Kurubara Sangha, questioned the rationale for allegedly discarding Kantharaj Commission report after spending Rs 168 crore on the earlier survey.“Govt claims the survey must be conducted once every 10 years, but that is irrelevant since the Kantharaj report was never implemented,” he stated. “Our demand is to implement its recommendations. We will meet on June 20 to decide the modalities for our agitation.”In distinction, the Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities, each of which had opposed the Kantharaj report, are planning an outreach and a web-based survey, respectively, to “complement” the survey. B Kenchappa Gowda, president of Vokkaligara Sangha, confirmed his neighborhood’s plan.Sources stated the official notification for the survey could possibly be issued subsequent Thursday, coinciding with Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi’s birthday. Rahul, who presided over the assembly in Delhi final week the place the Congress brass requested Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar to organize for re-enumeration, is a proponent of “social justice through caste-based surveys”.“Procedure will be followed. We are considering suggestions on the survey’s modalities and schedule. I will consult CM Siddaramaiah, and an order will be issued soon based on his directive,” state backwards lessons welfare minister Shivaraj Tangadagi stated.The cupboard has mounted a 90-day timeline to finish the train. Madhusudan R Naik, chairperson of BC fee, stated preliminary work had already began.