Cabinet panel on SC/ST quota hike formed

Bengaluru: Karnataka government on Wednesday constituted a five-member cabinet sub-committee to examine increasing the reservation for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in the State.

The sub-committee was set up amid demand for quota enhancement proportional to the existing population.

It was constituted under the chairmanship of Social Welfare Minister B Sriramulu and consists of Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol, who is the Minister in-charge of PWD, Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy as members. The Social Welfare Department has been asked to provide the required assistance to the cabinet sub-committee.

The cabinet that had met on November 18 had decided to constitute the sub-committee and authorised Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to decide on who would be part of it.

The sub-committee would submit its recommendations to the government. There has been demand to increase the SC quota from the current 15 per cent to 17 per cent and the ST quota to be increased from 3 per cent to 7 per cent.

The sub-committee is also likely to look into the report submitted by the Justice Nagmohan Das Commission that was set up by the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition to look into the demand for hike in reservation.

The Commission had submitted its report to the government in July and has reportedly favoured the hike.

Sriramulu's Valmiki (ST) community is seeking a hike in quota, while Kuruba community, which is considered politically influential in several parts of the state, is seeking ST tag.

Karnataka, at present, provides 15 per cent reservation for SCs, 3 per cent for STs and 32 per cent for the other backward classes (OBC), which add up to 50 per cent. PTI