BENGALURU: Amid talks of chief minister B S Yediyurappa almost on the verge of exiting the government and an enforced leadership change in the state, the Karnataka government on Thursday took a major decision of extending the centre’s 10 percent reservation for the economically weaker section to all those communities that are not covered by any other quota.
The reservation will be extended to the families under these castes and communities who have less than Rs 8 lakh in annual income and only in the sphere of government service and education.
The decision, which may have a major political resonance in the state, is being seen as one of the last important decisions taken by CM Yediyurappa at the helm of the government.
According to the backward classes welfare minister Kota Srinivas Poojary, the decision to implement the 10 percent reservation for the castes and communities that are not covered under the SC/ST or OBC categories was a reiteration of the centre’s move.
“The centre had defined, under its own calculations of the castes and communities which can be provided the reservation. Accordingly, the state government is also putting together a list of castes and communities that are not covered under any of the other quotas,” said Poojary.
The implementation of the 10 percent reservation in Karnataka had suffered a large setback as it had a lot of duplication of castes and communities which were covered in some quota or the other, while others were denied on the premise that they are “unrecognised” as a caste under the larger caste bracket.
“For example, the Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) in the coastal parts had a huge problem securing reservation under the 10 per cent quota due to lack of clarity on who needed to be included and who to be excluded,” said Poojary.
Meanwhile, CM Yediyurappa also approved a grant of Rs 3,000 per hectare for every farmer to invest in increasing the organic carbon in soil. The grant will be to a maximum of 2 hectare for every farmer.
“Since scientists have been advising the government of the soil losing its organic carbon in Karnataka, we are ensuring that from sowing seeds to purchasing of organic manure and maintaining soil card, a sum of Rs 3,000 per farmer per hectare for a maximum of 2 hectares will be provided,” said law and parliamentary affairs minister Basavaraj Bommai, after the cabinet meeting.
Bommai said the government has allocated Rs 75 crore for the purpose, for a period of 5 years, and Rs 10 crore was being released in this fiscal towards this effort.
The Yediyurappa cabinet also approved the health scheme of Karnataka arogya sanjeevani scheme for state government employees and their family members, which is basically a cashless health scheme for government servants and their families.
The major announcement is going to cause a financial setback of Rs 250 crore per year, as per estimates.
In other decisions, the cabinet also gave approval to as many as three to four schemes that were related to CM Yediyurappa’s home district of Shivamogga, which is being speculated to be his farewell gift for the district.
These include the approval of 9.32 acres of land for Cow protection society,an AYUSH university and a cancer centre in the district.
Other decisions:
NTPC, Hubballi 2 acres waste to energy
Seven agriculture universities to get a centre for innovation and development in smart agriculture in association with Hexagon Manufacturing and intelligence
43 Tahsildars on deputation repatriated, no more deputations in revenue dept
