Protests staged seeking implementation of internal reservation

The Hindu

2 days ago

Seeking immediate implementation of internal reservation for scheduled castes various organisations took out protest marches and demonstration in Dharwad on Friday and few even tonsured their heads in protest.
Members of Madiga Internal Reservation Struggle Committee staged the protest before the statue of B.R. Ambedkar and accused the State government of neglecting social justice and following anti-Madiga policy.
As part of the protest few among the protesters tonsured their heads and intended to send the hair to the Chief Minister as mark of protest. However, police intervened and stopped more joining the protest, which consequently led to heated argument between the protesters and the police. When the tension escalated, the police took several of them into preventive custody, who were released later in the day.
The protesters alleged that while internal reservation in the States like Haryana, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh had been implemented as per the direction of the apex court, the Karnataka government had failed to do so, resulting in members of Madiga community and its 29 sub-castes being left out from the sphere of employment.
They also alleged that the State government was not cooperating with the Nagamohan Das Commission by not providing the requisite data sought by the Commission from various departments. They said that the Socio-economic and Educational Survey Report by the Kantharaj Commission had been discarded by the Chief Minister and now confusion was being created around Justice Nagamohan Das' report also. The protesters led by Chandrashekhar Naduvinemani, Manju Hosamani, S. Hegde, Manju Kondapalli, Ningappa Hanchinal, Pundalik Madar, Rakesh Dodmani, Parashuram Dodmani, and others urged the government to announce its decision before the start of legislature session on August 11.
In another protest led by Dharwad Dsitrict SC/ST Pourakarmika and Employees Association and Jai Bhim Yuva Shakti Sena, a motorcycle rally was held from Ambedkar's statue in Hubballi to Kalabhavan in Dharwad. Subsequently a semi-naked protest was taken out, a mock funeral of the State government was held and few also tonsured their heads.
On reaching the Deputy Commissioner's office, they submitted memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Divya Prabhu G.R.J. who assured them of forwarding their appeal to the government. Office bearers of the associations Vijay Guntral, Basavaraj Alapur, Harish Guntral, Vijay Mulimani, Basavaraj Chalageri and others led the protest.