Karnataka admin reforms panel suggests 33% quota for women in Home Department

Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission has submitted two more reports with recommendations for seven other departments too

BENGALURU: The Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-2, headed by former chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar, has recommended 33 per cent horizontal reservation for women in recruitment of constables and non-gazetted staff in the Home Department.

The Commission, which submitted its second and third reports to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, noted that women’s representation in non-gazetted police staff in Karnataka is just 8.3 per cent as on 2020. The state has mandated 25 per cent reservation for women in recruitment of constables and other posts. Also, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in 2015, had advised all states to reserve 33 per cent vacancies for women so as to increase their representation in the police forces.

The Commission also noted that citizens often feel hesitant to visit police stations. The Police Department provides more than 32 citizen services. In order to bring the public and the police closer, citizen services help desks may be established in all police stations and a provision may be made in the Police Manual to institutionalise it, the Commission said.

Towards bringing in more transparency, it has recommended rules for transfer of Group-C and Group-D employees through computerised counselling in all the departments.The reports also mentioned that all departments are deploying staff outsourced staff without ensuring due representation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The State Government may issue an order that outsourcing agencies should provide suitable representation to SCs and STs when they outsource personnel provided by them to various government departments, it said.

The Commission also recommended the merger of many entities like the BDA and BMRDA, Panchayat Raj Engineering Department with Karnataka Rural Road Development Agency, Karnataka State Biofuel Development Board with Energy Department, etc.

The first report of the Commission was submitted in July 2021 with recommendations for three departments including Revenue, Food and Civil Supplies and also Transport. This time, the recommendations are for eight departments — Home, Energy, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Social Welfare, ST Welfare, Backward Classes Welfare and Minority Welfare Departments.

Major recommendations

• State government may decide that no file in Secretariat shall more more than three or four stages. At present, files are moving in five to 10 stages
• Government may utilise post offices for delivery of state citizen services.
• Organisations such as the BDA, KHB and KIADB are issuing khatas for sites allotted by them in the limits of gram panchayats, depriving the Gram Panchayats of property tax. Panchayats should collect property tax.
• Coordination committees may be constituted under the chairmanship of zonal commissioners in BBMP and City Commissioner in other corporations.
• Delegation of powers to the zonal Commissioners in BBMP and Deputy Commissioners in BDA to reduce burden on Chief Commissioner and Commissioner, respectively