Asserting that the constitution of the Sadashiva Commission for internal reservation was mere eye wash, D.G. Sagar, State convener of Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, said that the formation of the commission was only aimed at garnering votes.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, he said that the commission had been constituted not with intention of helping the oppressed class but to gain political mileage.
“The internal reservation system would be struck down by Supreme Court if it is challenged. Thus, there is no point in trying to give people internal reservation,” Mr. Sagar said.
Discrimination
Stating that the State government should not discriminate when resolving issues of the people of Karnataka, he urged the government to show the kind of commitment towards solving the Mahadayi water sharing dispute as it has shown in the case of the Cauvery issue. He alleged that the government has given the Cauvery inter-State water sharing issue more consideration as it is a problem related to Central Karnataka, while it has not shown the same concern for the Mahadayi issue which concerns the North Karnataka region.
“It has been noticed that successive governments have been giving more importance to issues concerning Central Karnataka, while the problems of North Karnataka do not get enough attention in the political sphere. Such continuous neglect gives room for some to raise the demand for separate Statehood. To avoid this, the government should show similar commitment for the Mahadayi issue too,” he said.
Backlog vacancies
Asserting that over 7,000 backlog posts reserved for SC/STs were still vacant in Karnataka, Mr. Sagar demanded that the government initiate the procedure for filling up these posts. He said that around 19,000 backlog posts were identified when the former Chief Minister J. H. Patel was in power. Since then, however, only 12,000 posts have been filled.
“No effort has been made to fill up the remaining posts. This is nothing but the denial of the rights of the SC/STs,” he said.
Claiming that over 70 per cent of people who were tilling on government land for generations were Dalits, he said that the process of issuing title deeds under ‘Bagair Hukum’ scheme was moving at a sluggish pace. He added that MLAs who should be heading the land grant committee clearing the pending cases, were not interested in issuing the title deeds.
