Drop names of 107 new castes, BJP tells Karnataka backward classes commission
BENGALURU: The Opposition BJP on Tuesday demanded that the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission remove the names of 107 new castes published in its caste survey list. BJP MLA and former minister V Sunil Kumar said that the State Government has created 107 new castes that were never heard of before. Sunil said that the Commission has now geared up to conduct the socio-economic survey, popularly known as the caste census.
Sunil, accompanied by Bangalore Central MP PC Mohan and MLC N Ravi Kumar, met Commission Chairman Madhusudan R Naik and urged him to remove these names. They said that these new castes are not in any caste list of the government or any commission.
The BJP leaders submitted a memorandum to Naik and later told reporters that the commission has published over 1,400 caste names and called for objections from the public. “There are many castes mentioned in the notification that no one has heard of in the past. For example, Kuruba Christian, Madiwala Christian, Vokkaliga Christian, and many such names. They have been given code names. This is unacceptable,” the BJP leaders said.
Sunil said that the new caste names cannot be accepted and there are chances of people protesting against this. “We have heard about two to three sub-castes among Christians and Muslims. But prefixing Christians for Hindu castes is an attempt to encourage religion conversion. In the coming days, they may give reservations for these communities,” Sunil said.
The BJP leader also requested the commission to give an acknowledgement letter for the survey to the residents.
“Earlier, the Kantharaju Commission had conducted a survey at a cost of Rs 165 crore. Later, the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission conducted a survey on internal reservation in SCs at a cost of Rs 110 crore. But its recommendations were modified.
We are urging the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission not to conduct its survey in an urgent manner. We met the chairman and discussed the confusion among the population,” he added.
Sunil further said that the survey cannot be completed in 15 days. “There are over 2 crore houses that have to be surveyed. It’s not possible to complete it in 15 days. Moreover, the Dasara festival is approaching... it is also raining,” he said.
In their memorandum, BJP leaders stated that the State Government should study the drawbacks of the previous Kantharaju and Jayaprakash Hegde commissions. “Based on that, the new survey should be conducted. The government has said that they will conduct a survey during the last week of September and the first week of October. The government had given 15 days’ time for the Justice Nagamohan Commission, which was conducting a survey on internal reservation among SCs. But they could not complete it even after two months,” the memorandum read.