BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said that a special cabinet meeting will be held on April 17 to discuss the socio-economic and educational survey report, popularly known as caste census, conducted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.
“The report was presented before the cabinet on Friday, but some ministers wanted to go through its recommendations. Hence, a decision on the report will be taken at the cabinet meeting on Thursday after a thorough discussion,” Siddaramaiah told reporters.
A clear picture of the population of different communities will be known once the report is made public. The survey was conducted by the commission headed by H Kantharaju.
According to sources, tabling of the caste census report before the cabinet was deferred twice. This was because ministers hailing from Veerashaiva-Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities claimed that the survey was conducted in an unscientific manner and the population of their communities was undercounted. Even DCM DK Shivakumar backed the Vokkaliga community’s demand for a new survey. However, leaders of AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, Backward Classes and Dalits) demanded that the report be tabled and its recommendations implemented.
Tabling of the report at the Friday’s meeting was the result of Siddaramaiah’s recent meeting with LoP in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who is a proponent of the caste census at the national level. It was because of this, no minister opposed tabling of the report at the cabinet meeting, the sources said.
‘Survey covered 5.98 crore of estimated 6.35 crore population’
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil and Backward Classes Development Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi, who addressed a joint press conference, clarified that no minister opposed tabling of the report.
“As per the 2011 census, the population of the state was 6.11 crore. The Kantharaj commission, which was tasked with the caste census in 2015, projected the population as 6.35 crore. Of them, 5.98 crore, including 1.35 crore families, were covered in the caste census. Which means, 37 lakh people, about 5.83% had been left out,” Tangadagi said.
Patil, who defended it, stated that leaving out 5.83% of the population was not a big deal as the population census left 3% of the population. Successive governments did not accept the Kantharaj commission’s survey attributing it to its member-secretary not signing the report.
On November 23, 2020, the Bommai-led BJP government appointed former MP K Jayaprakash Hegde as commission’s chairman.
The Siddaramaiah government, while extending his term, asked the commission to submit the report after addressing all legal issues. On February 29, 2024, Hegde submitted the report. There has been pressure on the government to act on the report since then.