Basava Jaya Mruthyunjaya Swami of Kudalasangama Panchamasali Peeth has said that the caste census submitted by the Chairman of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes K. Jayaprakash Hegde, is unscientific and unacceptable.
He was addressing a press conference in Yadgir on Friday.
The Swami said that the caste census by the commission appointed for the purpose was prepared without conducting a proper survey. ”I suspect that the survey was conducted to show that the population of the Lingayat community is smaller than the others,” he added.
Urging the State government not to take this census to Cabinet, the Swami said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should re-conduct the caste census by visiting the doorsteps of every single person in the community. “The leader of the Lingayat community, including the Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha president Shamanur Shivashankarappa, has raised his voice against the caste census. Therefore, I demand the legislators from the Lingayat community in all political parties unite against the caste census and meet the Chief Minister for a re-conduct of the survey,” he said.
He said that the State government should recommend that the Union government include Panchamasali Lingayats in the 2(A) category and also include them in the Centre’s OBC’s caste list.
“We had urged the BJP government earlier and also put the same demand before the present Congress government.“ To put pressure on the government, the Panchamasalis are conducting “Lingapooje” on the highways. On part of this move,” Lingapooje” will be organized near Devapur Cross in Surpur Taluk on Managuli-Devapur Cross State Highway,” he added.
He also said that a Kalaburagi division protest, including in Kalaburagi, Bidar, and Yadgir districts, will be held in Kalaburagi on March 10.
