The Justice H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission, which was formed to look into the demands for increasing the reservations percentage to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, held its first divisional-level meeting here on Tuesday.
Nearly 1,000 persons from the six districts of Kalyana Karnataka – Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Ballari – attended the meeting and submitted their appeals.
Six separate counters – one for each district – were established outside the S.M. Pundit Rangamandir for receiving the applications.
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As many as 70 applications were submitted by the noon when the commission formally began hearing the grievances over the reservations.
Justice Das, in his remarks, expressed serious concerns over the increasing voices against the system of reservation and called upon intellectuals to inculcate awareness among the people about the need for reservation to achieve equality.
“As part of Reading the Constitution campaign, I have visited all the districts and addressed programmes in the last one year. The last meeting was in Yadgir yesterday [Monday]. The most common questions I had face were about the need for reservations. People, particularly students, have talked against the reservations. It is chiefly because of lack of information and the larger conspiracy to do away with it,” he observed.
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Hailing India as a country of diversities, Justice Das held that the social, economic, political and cultural inequalities are imbibed in a diverse society and asserted the need of reservations to get rid of inequalities and achieve social justice.
“We have several religions and thousands of castes. There is social, economic, cultural and political inequality among these classes. The fight against inequalities is not new. Buddha fought and later Basava did. In modern India, B.R. Ambedkar took it into a new stage and his efforts resulted in the system of reservation enshrined in the Constitution. The Constitution and the reservations it offered has fundamentally changed the lives of Dalits for better. They have not just improved their own lives, but contributed a great deal to the development of the society,” he said.
Expressing concerns over the agitations of relatively forward castes demanding reservations, Justice Das said that there was a larger conspiracy to eliminate the system of reservations.
In the interactive session that followed, some people questioned the inclusion of touchable castes, such as Lambanis, Bhovis (Vaddar), Korama and Koracha communities, in the Scheduled Castes list which was meant exclusively for untouchable communities.
“These relatively forward and touchable castes in the SCs are eating up most of the benefits meant for the SCs. The most deprived communities such as Madiga and Holeya are deprived of their rights,” a Madiga leader from Ballari said.