H.K. Kumaraswamy, chairman, Karnataka Legislative Committee on SC/ST Welfare, on Friday said the committee will recommend to the government to provide reservation in government jobs to inter-caste marriage couples.
Mr. Kumaraswamy, who conducted a review of SC/ST welfare programmes in Mysuru district, said higher financial assistance should be extended to such couples to boost morale and encourage these weddings in society. The committee will also recommend to the government to increase the subsidy for inter-caste marriages from ₹10,000 to ₹25,000, he announced.
Mr. Kumaraswamy appreciated the steps taken by the Mysuru district administration which conducted 758 inter-caste marriages in a span of three years.
The committee consists of former Minister and MLA Mahesh; and MLAs K. Annadani, R. Prasanna Kumar, K. Mahadev, Anil Chikkamadu and Ashwin Kumar, who attended the meeting. K. Jyothi, ZP CEO, and ZP president Parimala Shyam were present. The committee members told the authorities to encourage mass and simple marriages and release subsidy to couples immediately after marriages under the ‘Adarsha Vivaha’ scheme. The subsidy given to the organisations that conduct mass marriages should be increased from ₹100 to ₹1,000, the chairman said.
An official told the meeting that 14,500 SCs and 9,747 STs in the district were without homes. Likewise, 9,827 SCs and 8,364 STs were without sites. The eligible families’ list for distributing houses and sites had been prepared after linking Aaadhar numbers. A target has been set to each GP to allot at least 50 sites to the families after identifying the government as well as private land necessary for developing the layout.
Mr. Mahesh wondered why so many applications of SCs/STs for regularisation of houses under Section 94C of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act had been rejected. Almost 90% of the applications had been rejected. In H.D. Kote taluk alone, 400 were rejected.
The tahsildar said the houses cannot be regularised under Section 94C if they are built on agricultural land. Applications are considered under the section only if they are built on government or kharab land. However, the ZP CEO said such houses can be clubbed together and given the status of ‘Revenue Villages’. Mr. Mahesh said poor SC/ST families can be empowered and brought to the mainstream only if they get land ownership rights and are encouraged to take up farming.
Mr. Kumaraswamy told Forest Department officials to be flexible in their approach and allow tribals to construct houses on the forest periphery.
MLA Anil Chikkamadu said tribals were not being allowed to construct houses even though they have title deeds. Periyapatna MLA Mahadev spoke about the same situation in his taluk.
If 80% of the applications seeking permission for constructing houses was rejected, where will they go, Mr Kumaraswamy questioned.
The ZP CEO said there was a provision to re-verify the rejected list.
Mr. Kumaraswamy, who is also MLA of Sakleshpur in Hassan, also asked the Forest Department to consider laying more rail barriers to address man-elephant conflict in Sakleshpur and other places.
DCF Prashanth Kumar said ₹33 lakh had been distributed in Mysuru wildlife division and ₹6 lakh in Hunsur division towards compensation for crop loss.
An officer from the CRE Cell said procedural lapses were behind not many convictions in cases pertaining to false reservation certificates. Since 2016, 202 atrocity cases had been registered in the district, according to SP Amit Singh.
‘Check child marriages among tribal families’
The meeting of the Karnataka Legislative Committee for SC/ST Welfare was told here on Friday that child marriages among the tribal communities were being reported from the tribal-dominated areas in Hunsur and Periyapatna taluks in Mysuru district.
Superintendent of Police Amit Singh told the committee that the district police have been getting complaints on such marriages and the departments concerned need to hold massive awareness drives in the areas to prevent the social evil. “We have booked the accused in child marriage cases under POCSO Act, 2012,” he said. “We have learnt there was lack of awareness among the communities,” the SP said.
The Deputy Director of Women and Child Development said the tribals practice some age-old customs even today in forests and sometimes such practices do not come to our knowledge.
Committee chairman H.K. Kumaraswamy asked the departments to take the help of NGOs in checking child marriages among tribals communities as done in H.D. Kote taluk.
