BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission has initiated the process to gather information about Panchamasali Lingayat community’s socio-economic and educational status to prepare a report to be submitted to the state government. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had on Monday stated that the government will get a report from the commission in six to seven months and take an appropriate decision on the community’s demand for inclusion in the 2A reservation category. Panchamasali Lingayats are currently in the 3B category.
On March 22, the commission will hold a public hearing with community representatives, after which they will hold consultations with people in various districts. “We have asked them to provide information about their social and educational status and we will hold public consultations in different places to get more information about Panchamasalis and submit the report to the government,” Commission Chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde told The New Indian Express.
He said they had already started the process to gather information and would submit the report to the state government at the earliest. The community seers had called off their strike after Yediyurappa’s assurance that a decision will be taken about six months after getting the report from the commission and a three-member committee headed by former High Court judge Justice Subhash B Adi. Panchamasali community seer Jaya Mruthyunjaya Swami and former MLA and president of the Lingayat Panchamasali Mahasabha Vijayanand Kashappanavar will attend the meeting with the commission on March 22.