BELAGAVI: The demand for increasing the reservation cap to over 50% in the State, came to the fore again in the ongoing winter session in the council on Friday with MLCs across the party lines raising the matter.
The matter came up for discussion when the question was raised by BJP MLC Talawar Sabanna who wanted the government to increase the reservation quota of the most backward communities from the present 4% to 7% in the State.
He said that the government must give reservation to most backward communities as per their population in the State.
Supporting the demand, D T Srinivas, the Congress MLC said that in the past, the government was giving 5% reservation when there were around 52 communities in the category, but interestingly, the government revised the reservation and brought it down to 4% when the number of communities increased to over 95 in the State.
Continuing his demand Sabanna demanded the government to increase the reservation to 7%.
To this, Minister for Backward Classes, Shivaraj Tangadagi acknowledged the demand, however, he made it clear that since the Supreme Court has restricted the reservation to 50% only, therefore, it is not possible for the government to increase the reservation.
Interfering in the matter, Congress MLC and veteran leader, B. K. Hariprasad who too joined the debate, refuted the claim of the Minister, stating that the SC has only made observations and not passed any order to put a cap of 50% on reservation.