Vokkaligas, Lingayats get 2 per cent more quota

BENGALURU:  In a major decision at its last Cabinet meeting on Friday, the BJP government approved increasing the reservation for Vokkaligas and Lingayats by 2% each, while scrapping the 4% Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation for Muslims under the 2B category.

The State Cabinet also approved internal reservations for Scheduled Castes by allotting percentage-based quotas depending on the size of their population. Muslims, who were getting 4% reservation under 2B of OBC (religious minorities), will now be moved to the 10% Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota. This will increase the reservation for Vokkaligas from the existing 4% to 6%, while that of Lingayats from 5% to 7%.

Asked about members of the Panchamasali community, who were demanding to be placed under the 2A reservation category, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the government will not touch 2A, which at present has 15% reservation given to Backward Classes. Vokkaligas and Lingayats now fall under 2D and 2C, he added.

While approving the internal reservation for SCs by allotting percentage-based quota depending on the size of the population, SC Left will get 6%; SC Right 5.5%, Touchables 4.5% and others 1%.
The recommendations will be sent to the Union Government, Bommai said. This decision was taken as per the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by Law Minister JC Madhu Swamy. 

Bommai: 15 Muslim groups under category-I will not be disturbed

The chief minister said under OBC, at present there is most backward (category-I) at 4%, more backward (category - 2A) at 15%, 2B (religious minorities) at 4%, 3A (Vokkaligas and others) 4% and 3B (Panchamasali and Veerashaiva Lingayat) 5%. This was to be reviewed once in 10 years, but was not done even after 20 years, he added. The Backward Classes Commission headed by Jayaprakash Hegde received many appeals and requests to review it. The commission members travelled across Karnataka and gathered information based on hearings.

According to their interim report, in Karnataka, three reservation categories were not needed as the lifestyle of members from most backward and more backward categories was almost the same. Only two categories were considered sufficient.

At the Belagavi Cabinet meeting, it was decided that 3A and 3B would now be made 2C and 2D. However, the Government Order has not been issued yet.

Apart from this, there were demands from various communities to increase quotas based on their population. The commission recommended shifting a few communities from OBC to the new EWS category. Based on this recommendation, the Cabinet took the decision.

The 2B category, which is for religious minorities, has no provision in the Constitution. In Andhra Pradesh, when the government took this step, the Supreme Court struck down the decision of giving reservations to religious minorities. Even Dr BR Ambedkar had said reservation is for the caste and not for religion, Bommai said.

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However, 15 Muslim categories, which fall under category-I, will not be disturbed. Even certain people under 2A will also not be disturbed. There are a few cases that do not fall under any category. Such castes will be studied in the future.

Speaking about the ST quota for the Kuruba community, he said the University of Mysore’s anthropology department has submitted a report. The government will take a decision on Koli and Kadu Golla communities soon, he said.