CHITRADURGA: The historic walkathon demanding scheduled tribe status for the Kuruba community began from the Kanaka gurupeet Kaginele on Friday evening, as the seer of the community Niranjananda Puri swamy started to walk with his followers.
Placing a woolen blanket made from the sheep wool, Niranjanandapuri swamy along with the heads of the other gurupeets coming under the Kaginele mutt, minister KS Eshwarappa, MTB Nagaraj, former minister HM Revanna started to walk to Bengaluru for showing their strength to the government.
The walk which started on Friday will end at Bengaluru on Feb 7 covering 340 kilometer in 24 days and will pass through major portion of the state. Thousands of people belonging to the Kuruba community are taking part in the walkathon in a phased manner.
He also said that lakhs of people will take part in the mega convention that will be held at Bengaluru on February 7 and the aim of this is to get ST status for the Kuruba community.
He also said that the community will not rest till they get ST status and the move has already started.
According to Eshwaranandapuri swamy of Kellodu branch of Kanaka gurupeet, 'From pre-Independence till 1977, the community enjoyed the ST status. In 1977, Justice L G Havanur, who headed the backward class commission, removed the ST tag, moving the Kurubas to the 'most backward classes' category, and brought in an area restriction stating that those living in Bidar, Yadgir, Kalaburagi and Madikeri with
Kuruba synonyms can continue to avail the ST benefits, which is still in effect. Kurubas are the third biggest community in the state'.