The official committee headed by Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, constituted by the government to frame the rules and fix the quantum of reservation for the people of Hyderabad Karnataka, as per the provisions of the amended Article 371(J), has submitted its recommendations to the State government.
Vaijnath Patil, former Minister and president of the Hyderabad Karnataka Horata Samiti, told presspersons here on Monday that the committee’s recommendations were now in the Chief Minister’s office for a final decision. Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar should act immediately and approve the recommendations, he added.
Mr. Patil expressed satisfaction over the recommendations, particularly the quantum of reservation fixed in employment and education. The committee had said that all Group D posts in government departments should be exclusively reserved for people of the Hyderabad Karnataka region, he said.
The committee had also recommended that 80 per cent of teachers’ posts in government schools in the region, along with 70 per cent of Group A and B posts in government departments, be reserved for applicants from Hyderabad Karnataka. It has also recommended that 70 per cent seats in the government quota in medical and engineering colleges be reserved for students from Hyderabad Karnataka.
Mr. Patil added that the government should reserve posts in government departments and seats in colleges based on the population of the region.
He pointed out a flaw in the 118th Constitutional amendment of Article 371(J). “It may be a typographical error, but it should be amended immediately,” he said. In a letter to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on this matter, Mr. Patil said that the non-inclusion of a non obstante clause in the 118th Constitutional amendment would deny the reservation benefits to people from the HK region living in other parts of the State.
“Forty-five per cent of the total posts in public employment are located in Bangalore, and many good educational and training institutions are located in Bangalore and South Karnataka. Reservation of seats in educational and vocational training institutions, proportional to the percentage of population in HK region, should be provided by amending Article 371(J) further,” Mr. Patil said.
In his letter to Mr. Shinde, he requested Mr. Shinde to make the necessary corrections in the Article 371(J): the inclusion of the non obstante clause, by including the words ‘notwithstanding anything in this Constitution’. He sought further amendments that would provide the people of the HK region the same reservation in employment and education anywhere in the State.
