Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has remained adamant despite stiff resistance from his cabinet colleagues over his pet project -- socio-economic based caste survey in the state.
After acrimonious scenes in the cabinet on Thursday evening that went on till late in the night and AICC General Secretary Randeep Surjewala intervention, Siddaramaiah has decided to go ahead with the survey that is going to be carried out by the Backward Class Commission of Karnataka.
On Thursday evening, during the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said that the survey was creating a lot of confusion and was bringing a bad name to the Congress government, as the survey was dividing people over their castes.
At this time, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said that the Backward Class Commission survey questionnaire had added over 331 new castes, which were never heard before. He wanted to know who gave them the names of these new castes in the State.
At this point, Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil asked the need for such a survey, which was aimed at demeaning the larger communities, which would affect the Congress in the future. Even Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre said that the government should abandon the survey, as the Congress would face backlash from the people.
When Labour Minister Santhosh Lad tried to defend the Chief Minister, M B Patil flared up. Social Welfare Minister Dr H C Mahadevappa and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Muniyappa tried pacifying the others.
Siddaramaiah, who faced the ire of ministers within the cabinet for the first time was taken aback and promised to take a decision after another round of meeting with the ministers. After the cabinet meeting, they met again, but nothing concrete emerged.
Meanwhile, Surjewala learnt about the scenes in the cabinet and rushed to Bengaluru on Friday morning. He held meetings with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar separately. The other ministers, who had opposed the survey on Thursday night abstained from the meeting saying that they had already expressed their opinion. However, Siddaramaiah remained adamant and said that the survey would continue with some amendments.
Speaking to reporters later, Siddaramaiah said that the Backward Class Commission was a Constitutional body and the government could not give any directions to it. Besides, the government would be getting details about the status of people in each community, so that it could introduce new programs for welfare of the underprivileged in each community.
ST FOR KURUBAS: Meanwhile, the move by Siddaramaiah to recommend Scheduled Tribe status for his own Kuruba Community is facing stiff resistance from the other ST communities.
Leading the opposition, the Valmiki community seer Prasannananda has said that he would be organising a mass protest against any move to include Kuruba community in ST category.
``The ST people are already deprived of facilities by the present government and including the Kuruba community into the category will deprive the present STs,'' he added.
SIDDARAMAIAH STUBBORN DESPITE CABINET OPPOSITION TO CASTE SURVEY
