BENGALURU: A group of leaders of the 70 ‘most backward communities’ met at the Legislators’ Home on Thursday, and sought a meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday. They will urge him to fix a clear date and make the Kantharaj Commission report public, said former chairman of the Backward Classes Commission CS Dwarkanath, former IAS officer Srinivasa Achary and former member of
the Kantharaj Commission KN Lingappa.
They said the leaders would later meet Backward Classes Commission chairman Jayaprakash Hegde, and urge him to pick a date to make public the Kantharaj Commission report. The then government had spent about Rs 170 crore on the report.
Hegde said, “There is a serious legal hurdle to disclosing details because the member-secretary has not signed the report, so we cannot make it public.’’ But sources said there is another serious concern — the Kantharaj Commission report that was submitted is missing from the Backward Classes Commission office.
Sources said there are soft and hard copies as backup, but backward community leaders said, “The original document signed by the members is missing. It is a very precious document and needs to be safeguarded adequately against tampering, or being rewritten according to the convenience of the government.’’
Asked about the missing document, Hegde told The New Indian Express, “We have a hard copy of the document, which the member secretary has not signed.’’
“Backward communities have expressed serious concern about gross under-representation,” Dwarakanath said. The most backward communities — Kuruba, Besta/Mogaveera, Golla, Edigaillava, Devanga, Kumbara, Madivala and others — who together number close to 50 per cent of the population, have said that they have not got their due.
Only three ministers from the backward community, including CM Siddaramaiah, are part of the ministry, and are seriously under-represented. They pointed out that if one goes by community numbers, they need to have at least 10-12 ministers even in the worst circumstances. They say that many communities have zero representation in the political system and point to the recommendations of the report that all need to be represented equally. They said that most of the backwards do not have a single MLA from their communities, and make up an average of about 4-5 per cent of the population.’’