Chalavadi Mahasabha alleges errors in internal reservation report, seeks review

Time of India

18 hours ago

Koppal: The Karnataka State Chalavadi Mahasabha has raised serious objections to the internal reservation report submitted by Justice Nagamohan Das, who heads the Internal Reservation Single Member Inquiry Commission, on Aug 4.
The survey, conducted from May 5 to July 6, 2025, encompassed 1.1 crore individuals across 27.2 lakh families. These families were categorised into five groups, with many being identified as the most backward.
In a letter addressed to chief minister Siddaramaiah and minister HC Mahadevappa, retired IAS officer and mahasabha president Siddaiah alleged that the report misclassified Paraiya and Paravan castes, part of the Scheduled Caste (SC) right-hand community, under the left-hand community.
Moreover, several other right-hand communities were reportedly moved to the most backward castes category, allegedly reducing their population share.
According to the commission's report, the reservation quotas were allocated as follows: 1% for the left-hand group, 6% for the right-hand group, 5% for Banjara, Bhovi, Korama, Koracha, and non-untouchable castes, and 1% for non-caste groups like Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida, and Adi Andhra.
However, the mahasabha claimed that the report submitted by Justice Nagamohan Das was unscientific and biased.
In its letter, the Chalavadi Mahasabha highlighted procedural flaws made by the commission. It pointed out that during the survey, most enumerators were instructed to use a specific app for data entry, but were not provided tablets. Later, the app was removed from their devices on commission's request, resulting in the deletion of thousands of survey entries.
No re-surveys were conducted for these families, it said.
Furthermore, the mahasabha claimed that the abrupt shift in methodology — from ration card-based to Aadhaar-based — was flawed. A request to include families with multiple children lacking Aadhaar cards led to a policy permitting four individuals per Aadhaar card. By then, approximately eight lakh families were surveyed, excluding at least eight lakh children, with no corrective steps taken, it alleged.
The mahasabha also accused the commission of overlooking the issue of enumerators not having identity cards, leading to unverified surveys and incomplete coverage of Scheduled Caste populations. Additionally, they alleged that educated individuals entered their castes as Adi-Karnataka, Adi-Dravida, and Adi-Andhra without mentioning their original castes. The commission, according to the Maha Sabha, did not address these discrepancies, instead assigned a blanket 1% reservation to these groups, deeming it "unscientific and illegal".
The commission understated the population growth rate of the Chalavadi community. The actual population stands at 1.47 crore, but the commission pegged it at only 1.16 crore, according to Siddaiah.
In light of these alleged inaccuracies, the mahasabha has called for the formation of a cabinet subcommittee to reassess and correct the reservation allocations to ensure justice for all communities.
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