BENGALURU: The Karnataka cabinet on Saturday decided to approve the Justice Nagamohan Das Committee report on increasing the reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The government will pass an executive order to this effect in two to three days.
After the special cabinet meeting, Law Minister JC Madhu Swamy said that as decided at the all-party meeting on Friday, the Cabinet okayed the decision to accept the report. Once implemented, the reservation for SCs will go up from the present 15 per cent to 17 per cent and for STs from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. The executive order will have all details of specific percentages of reservation for various categories, and will be implemented immediately.
Madhu Swamy said the government has also studied the report by the Justice Subhash Adi committee, which was constituted to study the Justice Nagamohan Das panel report. Also, the Justice Nagamohan Das Committee report mentions the Justice AJ Sadashiva committee report on internal reservation among SC/STs and Other Backward Classes. “The Cabinet has given powers to me and the Law Department to prepare a report on internal reservation based on the Justice Sadashiva committee report. We will decide whether to constitute a committee. We will submit a report to the cabinet soon. No time frame has been set for us,” he added.
He said many castes and communities have been demanding that they be included in SC/ST and OBC categories. “Their demands will be studied in detail to get a clear picture on the reservation percentage. Now, Tamil Nadu has 69 per cent reservation for SC/STs and OBCs and Uttar Pradesh 60 per cent. With the 10 per cent quota for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) as specified by the Central government, we have already crossed 60 per cent,” he said.
Will take all communities into confidence on quota issue: CM
Asked whether a constitutional amendment is needed to increase the quota beyond the 50 per cent limit set by the Supreme Court, he said the responsibilities of the executive and the legislature are different. “The state government will table the Bill in the next legislature session. Later, we will urge the Centre to pass a Bill for a constitutional amendment to expand the reservations to over 50 per cent under Schedule 9 of the Constitution,” he added.
“We still need to discuss the reservation for OBCs, but the focus now is on increasing the quota for SC/STs,” he said. Asked whether it is to avoid the demand from other communities, he denied it and said the government cannot take a decision on reservation without a scientific study and in-depth reports. “There are vacancies in many departments that need to be filled. We are committed to empowering SC/STs,” he added.
CM Basavaraj Bommai said that to give social justice to SC/STs who are deprived of opportunities, the state government will study the Justice AJ Sadashiva committee report on internal reservation. The government is planning a separate corporation for SC/STs. The Justice Nagamohan Das committee report also stresses on the reservation not reaching several weaker communities within SC/STs. “The government will decide on internal reservation based on the Justice Sadashiva committee report. We will take all communities within SC/STs into confidence,” he added.