Date:02/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/02/stories/2009010250980300.htm

Karnataka - Gulbarga

Inclusion of communities in Scheduled Castes list opposed

Special Correspondent

GULBARGA: The Karnataka Rajya Asprusha Samaj Mahasabha has decided to file a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court against the inclusion of communities such as Banjara, Lambanis, Oddars, Koncha and Korava in the Scheduled Castes list “depriving the communities that were earlier considered untouchable, of reservation opportunities”.

Mahasabha president Shivaram Moga and general secretary Shankar Kodla told The Hindu here on Sunday that the former Bihar Governor Rama Jois and lawyer Subramanya Jois had agreed to take up the case in a judicial forum on behalf of the mahasabha.

The writ petition would be filed next week challenging the government notifications that had ordered the inclusion of these communities in the Scheduled Castes list three decades ago.

Mr. Moga said the “touchable” communities that were included in the list by then Chief Minister Devaraj Urs deprived the “untouchables” in the Scheduled Castes list of their due share of reservation in job opportunities.

Communities such as Lambanis, Banjara and Oddars that were included in the Scheduled Castes list in Karnataka did not find a place in the list in other States, he said.

Mr. Moga said the Constitution provided reservation for the Scheduled Castes in an effort to provide special facilities to the “untouchable” communities which had suffered for several centuries owing to the caste system. Including the “touchable communities” in the Scheduled Castes list would defeat the purpose of providing reservation, he said.