The long-pending final report of the Socio-economic and Educational Survey (caste census) of Karnataka was submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here on Thursday.
Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes chairman K. Jayaprakash Hegde and its members met the Chief Minister and submitted the report in the presence of Home Minister G. Parameshwara and Kannada and Culture Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi.
What the report contains
The report includes recommendations made by the commission for the purpose of reservation in education and public employment, besides targeted schemes for communities that remain backward. Sources said that the commission had recommended classifications for castes based on the socio, economic, and educational status of communities.
While 1,351 castes and sub-castes had been listed out before the survey commenced, the exercise revealed the existence of more than 1,820 castes/sub-castes, the sources said.
More than 400 castes were identified newly in the State, which is owing to migration from other States, and some of which had just about five to ten persons from the community, the sources added.
Mr. Hegde said that while they had taken the data collected in the survey by the previous commission, led by H. Kantharaj, a fresh report had been prepared.
In the run-up to the Assembly elections, the Congress had promised to accept the caste census report and Mr. Siddaramaiah had also on multiple occasions reiterated it.
Opposition to survey
Conducted in 2015 by the Kantharaj Commission during the earlier tenure of Mr. Siddaramaiah, the caste census had become a politically sensitive issue with dominant land-owning Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayat communities expressing doubts about the data collected and had opposed the census itself.
The Siddaramaiah Cabinet is also divided over the issue, with Ministers belonging to the two communities having signed petitions submitted by their respective community organisations against the census.
The most controversial part of the survey has been the “leaked” population figures of communities, which has riled the Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats. As per the data “leaked” some years ago, the numbers of these two communities are learnt to be less than what they claim it to be.
Industries Minister M.B. Patil, who belongs to the Veerashaiva-Lingayat community and had opposed the survey, said: “We are not aware of the contents of the report. The government will decide whether to accept it or not after going through it.”
Acknowledging that the community was anxious about the report, he told presspersons: “A large number of people have written the name of the sub-sects, where as we are demanding that it should be Veerashaiva-Lingayat. Similar confusion and anxiety is prevailing in the Vokkaliga community. The government will take all these aspects into consideration.”
Meanwhile, a member of the Kantharaj Commission said that the government should clarify what would happen to the Kantharaj Commission report now. “Has the government taken any decision on it? Our report was ready but not accepted.”
Poser to CM
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai asked Mr. Siddaramaiah to clarify whether the caste census report was that of Mr. Hegde or Mr. Kantharaj.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on Thursday, the BJP leader said the terms of reference of the Kantharaj commission did not include the caste census report.
Also multiple petitions were pending before the Supreme Court on who had to conduct the caste census report, he pointed out. He called for a public debate on the caste census report received by the government.
‘Reject report’
The Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha has urged the State government not to accept the caste census report.
In a release, mahasabha secretary H.M. Renuka Prasanna said that the data collected was eight years old and that there would be population changes in this period, especially after COVID-19.
