‘State govt. should make efforts to seek Centre’s guidance on internal quota among SCs’

Ministers belonging to the Dalit community held a meeting at Home Minister G. Parameshwara’s residence on Monday and unanimously agreed that the State government must make efforts to seek guidance from the Central government on implementing the internal reservation among the Scheduled Castes.

Ministers belonging to the Dalit community held a meeting at Home Minister G. Parameshwara’s residence on Monday and unanimously agreed that the State government must make efforts to seek guidance from the Central government on implementing the internal reservation among the Scheduled Castes.

A Minister told The Hindu that the State government should not go back on providing internal quota for the Scheduled Castes, as the Congress had promised it at a convention in Chitradurga and in its 2023 poll manifesto.

The Supreme Court judgment held that States could sub-classify the Scheduled Castes to give preferential reservation to the most backward among them based on empirical data. 

The Minister said empirical data could only be availed if the census was completed. The Centre had not conducted the 2021 Census. Hence, the State Cabinet should discuss the issue and appeal to the Union government to provide guidance.

The Haryana BJP government had already decided to implement the internal quota among Dalits, the Minister said.

The meeting, which was also attended by leaders of the community, discussed the difficulties faced by Scheduled Caste members in availing themselves of caste certificates. There are over 100 sub-castes in the Scheduled Castes list.

The SC (Right), Banjara, and Bhovi caste group leaders have been demanding that the State government address the confusion prevailing over issuance of caste certificates to Adi Karnataka and Adi Dravida (SCs).