Government to consider raising quota for SCs, STs to 22.50 p.c.

Now, it has been pegged at 18 per cent in the State

AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah andRailways Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge at a KPCC Scheduled Castesconference in Bangalore on Monday. Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday promised that his government would seriously consider the demand of Minister for Railways M. Mallikarjun Kharge for raising reservation quota of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to 18 per cent and 4.5 per cent respectively, commensurate with their population in the State.

He was replying to demands made by All India Congress Committee general secretary Digvijay Singh, Mr. Kharge, KPCC president G. Parameshwara, AICC Scheduled Castes Department president K. Raju and KPCC Scheduled Castes Department chief N. Manjunath, on the various needs of Dalits, including the quota, raised at the KPCC Scheduled Castes conference here.

Union Minister of State for MSMEs K.H. Muniyappa spoke.

Mr. Kharge had said that most States had given proportional reservation to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but the Union government and the State government were still maintaining the quota at 18 per cent for both communities together, depriving them of jobs, seats and loan facilities.

He asked Mr. Siddaramaiah to set right the anomaly. Mr. Kharge also demanded that the State government start recruitment in the six districts of Hyderabad Karnataka region as per Article 371 J of the Constitution.

Schemes

Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) parties on their own would not have implemented any welfare measures benefitting Dalits, other backward classes and minorities in the absence of Constitutional guarantees given by B.R. Ambedkar, 20-point programmes and reservation in panchayats and urban local bodies under the 73rd and 74th amendments made by the former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

The Congress and its leaders were committed to social justice and listed such programmes implemented by them.

The Chief Minister declared that his government was committed to the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and the poor among all castes and would not resort to excesses and harassment of the people.

Mr. Digvijay Singh, who inaugurated the conference, asked Mr. Kharge and Mr. Siddaramaiah and their colleagues in the respective Cabinets to see that all pro-Dalit welfare measures, including filling backlog posts, were implemented with all seriousness.

The Congress leaders paid floral tributes to Dr. Ambedkar and the former Deputy Prime Minister Jagjivan Ram.