Bengaluru, Nov 13: In a major policy decision, the Karnataka government has decided to revisit the present system of reservation provided to backward classes in panchayats and municipalities.
Ministers T?B?Jayachandra, H?Anjaneya, R?Roshan Baig, Eshwar Khandre and Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission chairman H Kantharaj, are among the other members, on the panel.
The committee will have to submit its report within 10 months.
According to official sources, the committee was constituted in September this year following a direction of the Supreme Court on a petition challenging the present system of reservation to backward classes in panchayat raj institutions and municipalities.
According to the present reservation system, seats in both urban and rural local bodies for SC/STs is fixed based on their population.
The OBC?quota is divided into two categories. Backward Classes (A) category, comprising a majority of communities under the state OBC?list, is provided 80% reservation, while Backward Classes (B) with dominant communities like Lingayats, Vokkaligas and Bunts, is provided the balance 20% reservation.
Rules stipulate only such candidates who are not income tax or sales tax assessees and who do not own more than 10 hectares of farmland, are eligible to contest under category BC(B). Besides, 50%?seats in all categories are reserved for women.
The system had been challenged by the Karnataka Kurubara Sangha, which questioned the basis on which the quota had been fixed.
Kantharaj said a report on caste-wise political representation in zilla panchayats and taluk panchayats prepared by the Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission sourcing information from the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj?Department had been submitted to state government recently.
The report will serve as reference material to the committee. The committee will be holding its first meeting soon, the sources added.
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