New Delhi: In a significant move ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, the state government on Friday decided to increase the reservation for the Lingayat community to seven per cent and Vokkaliga quota to six per cent.
The government also decided to scrap the four per cent quota for minorities and add it to the existing quota of the two dominant communities.
Talking to reporters after a cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the religious minorities quota would be scrapped and brought under the 10 percent pool of the EWS category without any change of condition.
“The four per cent (reservation for minorities) will be divided into two between 2C and 2D. The four per cent reservation for the Vokkaligas and others will be enhanced to six per cent and Veerashaiva Panchamasali and others (Lingayats), who are getting five per cent reservation will now get seven per cent,” news agency PTI quoted CM Bommai as saying.
Currently, the Lingayat community has a five per cent reservation, while the Vokkaligas have a four per cent quota.
Earlier last December, the Karnataka Cabinet had abolished 3A and 3B categories of reservation for Vokkaligas and Lingayats respectively and had replaced them with two new categories of 2C and 2D.
Defending the decision to abolish the reservation for Muslims, CM Bommai said there was no constitutional provision for religious minorities.
“However, we cannot drop that community entirely. With a view that there should not be any problem, the religious minorities...if someone challenges reservation to them, we decided to take a proactive decision. In fact they will go from 4 per cent to the 10 percent pool of the EWS group without any change of condition,” Bommai further said.