Stating that the State government is committed to implementing the recommendations of the Sadashiva Commission for providing internal reservation among Scheduled Castes, Home Minister G. Parameshwara said here on Sunday, December 24, that the State government will soon approach the Centre in this regard.
The Justice A.J. Sadashiva Inquiry Commission, which looked into methods of equitable distribution of reservation facilities among Scheduled Castes (SCs), had in its report in 2012 recommended internal reservation among the castes by broadly reclassifying all the 101 castes into four groups. As a suitable law has to be brought in by the Parliament to incorporate the recommendation, the commission had asked the State to take up the matter with the Union government.
The commission had recommended reclassification of all Scheduled Castes into four groups Right Community, Left Community, Touchables, and Other Scheduled Castes communities for equitable distribution of the overall reservation of 15% that is being given to Scheduled Castes. Of this reservation of 15%, the commission had recommended 6% to the Left Community, 5% to the Right Community, 3% to Touchables and one % to Other Scheduled Castes communities.
The State government had constituted the commission in 2005 when N. Dharam Singh was the Chief Minister to ascertain whether there were any discrepancies in the distribution of benefits under Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution and whether these benefits were equally distributed among all castes and groups included in the Scheduled Castes list.
Mr. Parameshwara, speaking at a State-level convention of the Aadi Dravida community organised by Karnataka Rajya Aadi Dravida Samaja Seva Sangha in Mangaluru, said: “There are some differences in the recommendations and I will not delve much into it.”
On the demand for providing caste certificates to those from the Aadi Dravida community per names it is called in different parts of the State, Mr. Parameshwara said the State government is considering calling those from Aadi Dravida community by one name. “We will bring in changes to ensure you get caste certificate in the way it benefits you,” he said adding that he will ask Social Welfare Minister H.C. Mahadevappa bring a proposal for the same before the Cabinet.
In the ongoing process of nominating legislators to headboards and corporations, Mr. Parameshwara said one among them will be from the Aadi Dravida community. He said the government is committed to filling more than two lakh vacant posts in different departments in five years by following the reservation policy, and it has already filled more than one lakh posts. Services of all the pourakarmikas in the State will be regularised, he said.
Acknowledging the support of Aadi Dravida and other Scheduled Caste communities for the government, Mr. Parameshwara said: “This is your government, and it is because of your support that the Congress has won 136 seats. The State government is committed to addressing all your issues,” he said while assuring allocation of funds in the forthcoming State Budget for the renovation of “moola stanas” of Aadi Dravida community members. Action will be taken on the demand for ₹250-crore package for Aadi Dravida community members, he said.
