Date:19/09/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/09/19/stories/2005091903100500.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Exclude dominant castes from Category 2 (A)'

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Joint Action Committee of Backward Classes, Dalits and Minorities has demanded that the Government provide due justice to castes such as Agasa, Devadiga, Kumbara, Yadava, Savitha, Tigala, Vishwakarma, Devanga and Ganiga that come under Category 2(A) by de-linking the "more benefited" castes such as Kuruba and Idiga from the category.

The president of the action committee, Krishna Naik, and other office bearers told presspersons here on Saturday that such a measure will ensure social justice to those castes that have been ignored and oppressed by dominant communities for many decades. Balija caste, said to be a backward one, which comes under Category 3(A), should be considered under a separate category in the larger interest of social justice, Mr. Naik and others said.

If the Government is really committed to the cause of backward classes, it should revise the internal reservation quota for backward classes once in 10 years. While doing this, it should keep out socially, economically and educationally forward communities from the purview of reservation, they said.

Owing to some contradictions and unscientific assessment of castes and sub-castes at the time of caste census, the report of the State Backward Classes Commission is not objective and justifiable. The total population of castes and sub-castes classified under various categories and the percentage of reservation are not rational, they said.