BENGALURU: The Justice Nagamohan Das Commission, which was set up to look into the demand for increasing SC and ST reservation in the state, is understood to have recommended a hike in quota by about 2 per cent for the two categories in education and employment. The Commission’s final report, prepared after an eight-month study, was submitted to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Thursday.
If accepted by the government, the overall reservation will exceed the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court in 1992, highly-placed sources hinted. “The report will be placed before the cabinet. It is up to the government to accept, reject or partially accept the report. It has been 28 years since the verdict and many things have changed since. In many states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Jharkhand , the SC, ST and OBC quotas have exceeded 50 per cent. A similar recommendation has been made here,” the sources said.
The Commission had received 851 applications and suggestions. It had conducted 38 meetings across the state between November 2019 and June 2020 and prepared an eight-volume report.At present, Karnataka has 15 per cent reservation for 101 Scheduled Castes, 3 per cent for 50 Scheduled Tribes and 32 per cent for Other Backward Classes (OBC), including Muslims, Christians and Jains.
Valmiki group wanted 7.5% quota for STs
During the time of the coalition government led by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy , there was a demand to increase reservation for SCs and STs.In October 2019, the government constituted the commission to explore ways to meet the demand for increasing SC/ST reservation. At that time, there was a proposal to increase SC reservation from 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for STs, from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. The Valmiki community, which belongs to the ST, had placed a demand to increase ST quota to 7.5 per cent.