Karnataka Caste Survey Report Submitted; Veerashaiva-Lingayat Community Express Objections (image: twitter.com/siddaramaiah)
Ahead of upcoming Lok Sabha elections, a caste survey report has been submitted before Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday. The report is facing objections from the politically dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga castes, including Congress leaders in the state.
A Socio-Economic and Education Survey report, commonly known as the caste census, was submitted by Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes (KSCBC) Chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde. The content of the report are not made available to the public till now.
The Chief Minister said that the government has yet to review the report and added that it will submit the report before cabinet, and after discussion, it will take the next course of action. The chief minister indicated his intention to accept the report, the Times of India reports.
The caste survey was first ordered by the previous Siddaramaiah government in 2014. During the survey, 54 questions were asked of 5,90,00,000 people from 1,30,00,000 families. The government has spent Rs. 169 crore on the project. Although the survey report was set in 2017, it failed to be accepted due to technical issues, and successive Chief Ministers postponed accepting it as well.
Jayaprakash Hegde said that report was prepared on the basis of data collected by 1.60 lakh officials, including 1.33 lakh teachers, under the leadership of respective Deputy Commissioners of the districts across Karnataka in 2014–15.
The report was questioned by Lingayat and Vokkaliga castes because, according to the sources, the findings could confront their dominance in the state. Hence, they have expressed reservations about the caste survey. Calling it “unscientific,”, they have urged the scrapping of the report and conducting a fresh survey.
Similarly, a few Congress ministers and MLAs, specifically belonged to Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, expressed their doubt on the report. Earlier, the Congress chief and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, belonged to the Vokkaliga caste has also expressed his objection on the same.
