Key Points

“I don’t think there is any mistake in the report or the data. There may be small mistakes, but there are no major mistakes in the report. It is with the Cabinet. They will discuss and then take a decision,” the Chairman Hegde told media persons.

He further added that some people have started complaining without checking and reading the report.

“After satisfying myself, members and the member-secretary signed the report and submitted it to the government,” the Chairman said.

He further said that, like Hindus, among Muslims also they have also found 93 castes and subcastes during the survey.

“As per their request, we have verified them and taken a decision,” he said.

When asked about Hindu major castes divided into subcastes while the Muslim community is shown as one group, he stated, Muslims are put under one category. However, there are many castes in other categories as well. Some subcastes are included in nomadic communities.

Talking about the reservation limit, Hegde stated, the centre has increased the reservation for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) by 10 per cent, adding that a Constitutional amendment was made, and the court has given its consent.

“I don’t know what decision will be in future. It is left to the discretion of the judiciary,” he said.

In 2014, Siddaramaiah (during his first tenure as the Chief Minister) ordered the Karnataka Socio-Economic and Educational Census. A committee headed by the then Backward Classes Commission Chairman, H. Kantharaju, surveyed a cost of around Rs 169 crore. The report was ready by 2016; it was, however, put in cold storage by subsequent governments.

The Congress and JD-S coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy and the BJP government headed by B.S. Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai also kept the report pending.

In 2020, the Karnataka government, headed by the BJP, appointed Jayaprakash Hegde as the Commission chief, but the report was not made public.

Hegde submitted the final report to the Siddaramaiah government on February 29, 2024. Opposition parties, the BJP and JD-S, have opposed the implementation of the report.

The caste census report submitted by the Backward Classes Commission has allegedly pegged the Muslim population in the state at 18.08 per cent and recommends 8 per cent reservation for the community, sources said.

- IANS