BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has taken the initiative to start a fresh Socio-Educational Survey, with the nomination of four members to the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.
Former IGP K Arkesh from Channapatna, advocate Shivanna Gowda from Mysuru, assistant professor with a college in Mangaluru B Sumana and retired principal CM Kundagol of Dharwad will be the new members.
The government had nominated former advocate-general Madhusudhan R Naik as chairman on January 31, 2025. Now with a full-fledged commission, it is likely to hold meetings and give suggestions to the government to take up a survey of the state’s 7 crore people.
It is up to the government to decide on either giving the task to the commission, or setting up a separate committee headed by an expert, especially a retired high court judge, according to sources.
Siddaramaiah asked his cabinet colleagues to give their suggestions, and planned to have the survey completed by December 2025.
The Finance department is yet to give its clearance to fund the survey. The government had spent Rs 169crore on the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey (SES-2015). The commission headed by H Kantharaju had conducted the survey between April 11, 2015, and May 30, 2015, covering 5.98 crore people.
This time, the exercise is likely to be more exhaustive, and the government plans to use technology to finish it early. The services of schoolteachers are scarce as the academic year has just started, so there is a plan to use them during their free time after classes, said a source, adding that they will be remunerated.
Even as Siddaramaiah tabled the Kantharaju Commission’s SES-2015 in the cabinet, there was strong opposition from the two dominant communities -- Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva Lingayats -- who termed it unscientific and demanded a fresh survey.
They had alleged that their communities were undercounted. DCM DK Shivakumar was a signatory to the Vokkaliga community’s demand. Other Backward Classes also joined the bandwagon, and there was also opposition to recommendations of former Commission chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde to classify the backward classes quota.
