Will talk to Cabinet on raising SC, ST quota: CM Yediyurappa

Bengaluru: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who is under pressure from the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities to increase the reservation quota, said on Tuesday that he will place the subject before the Cabinet and take a decision soon. “There is no need for the Valmiki (community) seer to start a campaign demanding an increase in the ST quota. The government is examining the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission report. I will take up the matter with my Cabinet colleagues from the Valmiki community and decide,” the chief minister said in Davanagere.

Religious leaders from the Valmiki group that are already recognised as STs are demanding the government to increase the ST quota from the existing 3% to 7.5%. The JD(S)-Congress coalition government had constituted the Justice HN Nagamohan Das Commission to look into an increase in reservation for SCs from the existing 15% to 17% and for STs from 3% to 7%. The commission submitted its report to the government last year.

With the Kurubas, the state’s third-largest and an influential caste group, now seeking recognition as a scheduled tribe, the issue of increasing the quota has put the Yediyurappa government in an unpleasant situation. Congress leader Siddaramaiah who belongs to the Kuruba community, on Monday, said all those communities that meet the yardstick set for scheduled tribes must be given the recognition. “But we should also be aware that the Supreme Court has prohibited overall reservation from exceeding 50%,” he said, while urging the government to do an anthropological study of the Kurubas.