Survey of Schedule Castes for internal reservation to miss June deadline
Bengaluru: The govt's move to provide internal reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC) is set to be delayed since several Dalit representatives have sought more time to provide details for an ongoing survey to enumerate castes and sub-castes of communities.
While submitting its interim report to chief minister Siddaramaiah on April 27, a commission led by
Justice HN Nagamohan Das
recommended a scientific survey to enumerate SC communities. The govt agreed, giving Justice Das 60 days to secure this data. The commission was supposed to submit its report by June, but officials say the deadline may be extended.
"Many community leaders have approached the govt urging it to grant the commission more time to complete the survey," said home minister and senior Dalit functionary G Parameshwara.
"They have also written to the Justice Das Commission. We understand that it is a huge exercise and needs time, but the CM will take the final call."
Reclassification of SC communities and providing them with internal reservation has been a contentious issue with the Right and Left sects wrangling over it for decades. While the Right sect, considered socio-economically forward, is opposing internal reservation, it is a long-pending demand of the Left sect.
The Siddaramaiah govt decided to draw up a quota matrix after the Supreme Court, in Aug last year, placed the onus of reclassification of SC communities on state govts. The Justice Das Commission was set up in Dec last year.
"I earlier said I am not committing to the deadline but will do all I can to complete the task as early as possible," said Justice Das. "We have made a lot of progress with the survey. I will provide details about it tomorrow (Friday)."
The survey was divided into three phases with door-to-door enumeration beginning on May 4. In the second phase, the commission planned to set up public camps to obtain data from those who missed the door-to-door survey. The third and final phase is to collect data through an app.
Authorities say the survey has covered about 50% of households. They also say there are more than the govt's estimate of 18.5 lakh households which they must visit.
It is said the survey has covered 10.5 lakh houses so far. While the survey is on schedule in cities like Bengaluru, progress has been slow in rural areas.
"We have a target of covering 45,224 houses in Bengaluru, and we have covered 38,000 so far. The deadline for the first phase is May 17, but we expect to complete the task a day earlier," said G Jagadisha, deputy commissioner, Bengaluru Urban.
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