The district unit of Karnataka Bhovi Samaj Seva Sangha has demanded that the Kundapur Taluk Office should issue caste certificates identifying the members of Bhovi community as belonging to the Scheduled Caste.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, Udaykumar Bhovi, president of the sangha, said that there were about 5,000 members belonging to the Bhovi community residing in 15 villages in Kundapur taluk of Udupi district. They were being given caste certificates identifying them as Scheduled Caste from 1978 to 1991.
But after 1991, the Kundapur Taluk Office stopped issuing the caste certificates to the Bhovi community. Though the office bearers of the samaj had approached the Kundapur MLA Halady Srinivas Shetty and other politicians and officials, nothing had come out of it.
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The people belonging to the Bhovi community were backward and used to work as palanquin carriers and farm workers about 200 years ago. They did not even have proper representation in government jobs in posts such as First Division Assistant and Second Division Assistant.
They did not have proper representation at the political level either except for one or two members having served as Gram Panchayat members.