The much awaited Socio-Economic and Education Survey report, popularly known as the ‘caste census’, was submitted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, by Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Chairman K Jayaprakash Hegde on Thursday, triggering a renewed debate within the Congress which appeared divided over the issue.
This comes amid objections to the report by certain sections of the society and also within the ruling Congress.
“We don’t know what is in the report. The government has received the report, it will be placed before the Cabinet, and will be discussed and decided there,” Siddaramaiah told reporters after receiving it.
Hegde said that the report was prepared based on data collected by 1.60 lakh officials, including 1.33 lakh teachers, under the leadership of respective Deputy Commissioners of the districts across the state in 2014-15.
H Kantharaju was the Chairman when the data was collected, and he could not submit the report due to some technical issues, he said. “We have prepared a report and submitted it to the government, and I heard him (the Chief Minister) saying that he will place it before the Cabinet next.” Karnataka’s two dominant communities — Vokkaliags and Lingayats —have expressed reservations about the survey, calling it ‘unscientific’, and have demanded that it be rejected and a fresh survey conducted.
With pressure mounting on the government, from a certain section, to make public the state’s survey, following the Bihar government releasing findings of its caste survey recently, the Chief Minister had earlier said a decision will be taken once he receives the report.
But the survey is mired in controversies even before the report is submitted to the government, amid deep divisions within ruling Congress, stiff opposition by the two dominant communities against its acceptance, and the survey’s original ‘work-sheet’ copy missing.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress President, and a Vokkaliga, was a signatory, along with a couple of other Ministers, to a memorandum submitted by the community to the Chief Minister, requesting that the report along with the data be rejected.
All India Veerashaiva Mahasabha, the apex body of Veerashaiva-Lingayats, which has also expressed its disapproval vis-a-vis the survey and demanded conduct of a fresh survey.
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