Priyanka Tiwari
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The Karnataka administration is working on a plan to accommodate Muslim contractors by allocating them a 4% reservation. A year ago, the government had considered this proposal but had to take it down due to criticism and claims of vote bank politics. Now, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is attempting to reintroduce this. If passed, Muslim contractors will have a 4% reservation in public civil work. Many consider this move by the government as an attempt to consolidate the support of minorities, OBCs, and Dalits.
Reservation Policy
Siddaramiah’s government in Karnataka intends to revise The Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act of 1999 in the ongoing budget session to put the reservation policy into practice. Reports say that the Finance Department has prepared the policy and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil has also given his backing for the change.
Whom and how much do they set aside reservations for?
Currently, the reservation of 24% in civil works contracts in Karnataka is set aside for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST), 4% for Other Backward Class (OBC) Category-1 and 15% for OBC Category-2A . All these put together sums to total reservation of 43%. Now, if Muslims are allotted 4% reservation in Category-2B, then the total reservation will be 47%. Also, the total contract value which was previously pegged for these beneficiaries would be increased to Rs 2 crores.
When did issuing reservation first come in?
When Siddaramaiah became chief minister for the first time in 2013-18, he implemented a scheme of reservation in government works for SC/ST contractors. Earlier in the year, the same benefit was granted to two other OBC categories. Category-1 consists of the community of Besta, Uppara and Dalit Christians while Category-2A consist of Kuruba, Idiga and over 100 other communities. Siddaramaiah is from the Kuruba community himself.
BJP is strongly condemning
Although Congress has a large following, The Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities do not offer such a reservation and are quite annoyed. It has been labeled as unconstitutional and as politics based on populism. BY Vijayendra, the president of the BJP in the state claimed that the Congress is trying to fracture the society on religious lines.
"The most outrageous form of appeasement"
Vijendra also commented saying, “It’s only the Muslims who are included in the list of minorities with no consideration to other underprivileged groups which is a step too far. A certain portion of the population excludes Zaid, Aisel, and Al-Quabool Muslims who are already in need of aid for education and jobs. Granting these minorities 4% of the government contracts is absolutely ridiculous. He also stated that if this included all minorities, the BJP would not have opposed it at any cost."
