3 days ago
Revision of report on internal reservation for Scheduled Castes sought; protest staged
Thousands of the Dalit Right community members took out a procession and staged a demonstration outside the Deputy Commissioner's office in Kalaburagi on Thursday, opposing the H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission report on internal reservation among Scheduled Castes.
Organised under the banner of Scheduled Castes Right Community Internal Reservation Protection Committee, community leaders, members of caste-based organisations and supporters gathered at Jagat Circle where they paid floral tributes to B.R. Ambedkar before marching to the Deputy Commissioner's office.
The rally, accompanied by drum beats, echoed with slogans such as Jai Bhim and Down with the biased Nagamohan Das report. Banners emblazoned with Jai Bhim fluttered during the procession.
Upon reaching the district administrative complex, the protesters blocked vehicular movement for nearly two hours disrupting traffic movement.
As vehicles were diverted to different roads, several narrow streets and circles saw traffic jams and heavy congestion.
The agitators, meanwhile, in a symbolic gesture of dissent, burnt copies of the Nagamohan Das Commission report.
They said that the Nagamohan Das Commission report is unscientific and the recommendations of the report appear to be highly biased. They also noted that the report wrongly clubbed several sub-castes belonging to the Scheduled Castes Right group under the Scheduled Castes Left thereby affecting the distribution of internal reservation benefits.
'There are several flaws in the Nagamohan Das Commission report. Many castes which are part of the Scheduled Castes Right have been brought under Scheduled Castes Left. The Scheduled Castes Right communities population size has also been shown smaller than their actual size,' State vice-president of the BJP's Scheduled Castes Morcha Ambaraya Ashtagi said during the protest.
Clarifying that the protest is not against the Madiga community, which got a relatively greater share in the Scheduled Castes reservation in the commission's report, another Dalit Right leader Arjun Bhadre said that the Scheduled Castes Right communities did not have an objection to the 6% reservation allocated to Scheduled Castes Left communities which include the Madigas.
'This is not a fight against the Madiga community. We have no objection to the 6% reservation they enjoy. This is a struggle to secure a fair share of internal reservation for the Scheduled Castes Right communities based on our actual population,' he said.
Mr. Bhadre also noted that most enumerators were instructed to use a specific app for the survey but were not provided equipment/tablets.
'Later, the app was uninstalled from their devices resulting in the deletion of thousands of survey entries and a re-survey was conducted for those families. The abrupt shift in survey method from ration card-based to Aadhaar-based resulted in the leaving out of at least eight lakh children who did not have Aadhaar. The enumerators were not provided identity card, leading to unverified surveys and most of the Scheduled Castes population was not covered,' Mr. Bhadre said.
Leaders who spoke at the agitation site said that the population size of the Scheduled Castes Right communities was around 40 lakh and criticized the Nagamohan Das Commission for recording it as 30 lakh.
'Around 10 lakh-15 lakh Dalit Christians were wrongly included under the Scheduled Castes Left category. These numbers must be corrected and our (Scheduled Castes Right) rightful share in internal reservation ensured. The government should approve the report only after such corrections are made,' Mr. Bhadre insisted.
A memorandum, addressed to the Chief Minister, was later submitted to the district administration before the protest concluded.
Prominent Scheduled Castes Right leaders including Mariyappa Halli, Vishal Dargi, A.B. Hosamani, Basanna Singe, Dinesh Doddamani, Mallappa Hosamani, Arjun Gobbur, Ramesh Pattedar, Mahantappa Sangavi and Srinivas Khelagi participated in the agitation.
