Few SC communities hold protest alleging 'injustice' in internal reservation

Bengaluru, Sep 10 (PTI) Representative from a few Scheduled Caste communities on Wednesday held a protest in the city alleging "injustice" in the government's internal reservation formula.

The protest was held opposing the government's decision to club 59 nomadic castes along with Banjara, Bhovi, Koracha, and Korama communities into one bracket, and providing them with 5 per cent reservation.

The protesters demanded enhanced reservations for these communities.

The protest led to a major traffic jam around Freedom Park as the agitators tried to march towards Vidhana Soudha.

With police stopping them by erecting barricades, the protesters sat down on the road, demanding that the government hear them and consider their appeal. This led to a huge traffic jam in the surrounding areas, causing inconvenience to people during the evening hours.

A woman protester allegedly attempted to immolate herself at Freedom Park, but she was stopped by those nearby.

According to police sources, the protesters withdrew after submitting a memorandum to Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, and giving the government one week's time to reconsider its reservation formula and to do justice to the communities.

The decision to withdraw came after the protesters were convinced by BJP State General Secretary and former legislator P Rajeev, who had led the protest.

Earlier, state BJP President B Y Vijayendra met the protesters.

Addressing them, he hit out at the Congress government and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing them of having "failed to provide justice" to all these communities.

He also alleged that the Congress government of following the divisive policy of the British.

The internal reservation decision was aimed at slicing up the 17 per cent reservation matrix given to 101 scheduled castes.

Of the 17 per cent reservation that SCs have in the state, as per the internal reservation formula evolved by the state government, the SC (Right) and SC (Left) will get 6 per cent each, while the 'touchable' Dalit communities (Lambani, Bhovi, Korma and Korcha) and most backward/nomadic communities get 5 per cent.

The state cabinet had last month decided on an internal reservation by accepting the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission's report with some alterations.

The commission had made recommendation for internal reservation in five categories: 'most backward' communities (group A)- 1 per cent, SC (Left)/Madiga community (group B) 6 per cent, SC (Right)/Holeya (group C)- 5 per cent, 'touchable' communities (group D)- 4 per cent, and Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida and Adi Andhra communities (group E)- 1 per cent. PTI KSU KH