Special Cabinet Meet to Discuss Fate of Socio-Economic Survey Report
To frame questionnaires for the survey, a six-member expert committee was constituted and the expert committee conducted as many as 16 meetings to decide on questionnaires for the survey.
Bengaluru: A special cabinet meeting on April 17 will discuss the socio-economic and educational survey-2015 submitted by Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes by its chairman and former Lok Sabha member Jayaprakash Hegde to the State Government on February 29, 2024. The survey across the State began on April 11, 2015 and completed the survey on May 30, 2015.
Taking into consideration the leaked portion of the socio-economic survey report, members of politically dominant communities-Lingayatas and Vokkaligas opposed the survey report. In the leaked portion of the survey, reportedly stated Scheduled Castes and Muslims outnumber Lingayats and Vokkaligas in Karnataka. As of now, Lingayats claim to constitute about 17 percent of the State’s population while Vokkaligas claim to constitute about 14 percent.
Political leaders of Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities mounted pressure on Chief Minister Siddaramiah not to approve the socio-economic survey report citing that many families have been left out of the survey and termed the report inconclusive as well as unscientific.
After the cabinet meeting in Bengaluru, Minister of Backward Classes and Kannada and Culture Shivaraj Tangadagi said the survey covered 94.17 percent of the population while 5.83 were left uncovered. In the survey as many as 5.98 crore population were covered out of 6.35 crore population which includes 1.35 crore families and out of it about 37 families went uncovered.
The socio-economic survey initially was held under the then Chairman of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes by its chairman H. Kantaraju and the survey gathered details such as social, educational, economic, political representation and employment status of a family which included 54 questionnaires to the interviewees.
To frame questionnaires for the survey, a six-member expert committee was constituted and the expert committee conducted as many as 16 meetings to decide on questionnaires for the survey.
