Bengaluru: In an attempt to blunt the BJP’s campaign to paint him as anti-Dalit and also to prepare the pitch for the the Assembly polls next year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday raised the bogey of increasing the caste-based reservation for Other Backward Classes from 50 per cent to 72 per cent.
This is 3 per cent more than the quota for OBCs in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu. After being felicitated by a federation of Dalit organisations here, Mr Siddarmaiah said that efforts are on to release the caste census report – or the socio-economic and educational census, conducted by the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission – soon. “Once the report is out, the state government will make efforts to help those communities that have suffered discrimination for ages,” he said.
“In our country, only the Congress evolves schemes that are truly inclusive. All other parties only talk about it, but do nothing. It is only the Congress that comes out with schemes that help the poor,” he said.
Economic stability is the only way to deal with age-old caste discrimination that is plaguing the country. “I am a firm believer in equal opportunities for all and it is possible only through increasing the caste-based reservation to 72 per cent,” he argued.
Dalit writer-poet Siddalaingaiah, who was present at the function, appealed to the state government to appoint a team of lawyers to challenge the Supreme Court order on quashing caste-based promotions for SC/STs. “This is a serious issue and we can’t let it go without fighting it in a rightful manner,” he said.
The Supreme Court recently ordered against caste-based promotions, saying general category government employees should be given equal opportunity in promotions. With this order, around 3,000 SC/ST employees working in 63 government departments in the state may lose their advantage in promotions.
