Reservation for Kannadigas Demanded at Lit Fest

Bengaluru: Taking a serious objection to imposition of Hindi as the national language, president of 87^th All India Kannada Literary Convention and folklorist Go Ru Channabasappa on Friday felt the need to provide reservation for Kannadigas and stated providing reservation for Kannadigas in employment opportunities does not amount to anti-Constitutional or anti-Federal step.

Chairing the 3-day literary convention in Mandya, about 100-km from Bengaluru city, Channabasappa observed banks and post offices are full of Hindi speakers while the Union Government has accorded prominence for Hindi in conducting competitive examinations while ignoring the interests of Kannadigas.

“Successive governments at the Centre have directly and indirectly made attempts to impose Hindi as the national language,” said the Convention president and stressed on the need for job reservation of Kannadigas.

Channabasappa rued lack of job opportunities for Kannadigas leading to distress among youths and asked the State Government to implement Sarojini Mahishi committee report recommendations to provide job reservation for Kannadigas in public, private sectors and multinational companies. He lamented that the Sarojini Mahishi report has been implemented so far in Karnataka.

Channabasappa felt the need for the constitution of an expert committee by the Union Government involving Constitutional and financial experts to discuss on the issue of tax devolution to States from the Centre. He wanted the tax devolution to be discussed at the national level.

The folklorist stated that celebrating festivals, utsavs and birth anniversaries of religious leaders have turned out to be events to divide the society instead of uniting the members of the society.

Channabasappa asked the State Government to upgrade Government educational institutions and appealed to industrialists, NGOs and Non Resident Indians to join hands with the State Government to upgrade government schools and colleges.