Children from Bunts, Vokkaliga Lingayat community denied OBC reservation in JNVs

Though belonging to the Bunts community that comes under 3B category of Backward Classes in the State, Class 6 seat aspirant Dhrithi Shetty from Kundapur has been denied a seat in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Udupi under the 29% quota of seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as the Bunts community does not figure in the list of castes in the Central list of OBCs.

The Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in a note to all the regional offices on June 25, stated that the reservation for OBC non-creamy layer, introduced from this 2020-21 academic year, will be as per the Central list. It said the certificate should be in the format present on the website of National Commission of Backward Classes. As the income and caste certificate issued by Kundapur Tahsildar mentions Ms. Shetty as Bunt, she is not being considered by the JNV Udupi under OBC category.

“Despite being in OBC, we are denied reservation because of insistence of the Samiti on Central OBC list,” said Ms. Shetty's uncle and agriculturist Roshan Shetty from Asudu village of Kundapur. The Samiti laid out this norm only after students wrote the qualifying Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Selection Test. “By do so it denied students like Dhrithi a chance of writing the test under the general category,” he said.

Ms. Shetty is among the 10 Class 6 seat aspirants under OBC category who have been denied seat in JNV Udupi.

Like Bunts, students from Veerashaiva Lingayat community too face the same problem. Their caste certificate is not being accepted by the JNV in Shivamogga and Chamarajanagar. Around 10 aspirants each in these two JNVs are affected, Mr. Shetty said.

“We have approached State BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel and other MPs in the State. We are hoping for a positive action from the Central government,” Mr. Shetty said and added that the Samiti should consider the State OBC list as JNV caters to needs of students of the region and is different from other Central government-funded educational institutions.