The Hindu : Karnataka News : `Include all Bhovis in Scheduled Castes'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

`Include all Bhovis in Scheduled Castes'

By Our Special Correspondent

The President of the State unit of the BJP, H.N. Ananth Kumar, greeting the newly-elected legislators of the Bhovi community at a function organised to felicitate them in Bangalore on Sunday. The legislators are (from left) S. Raghu, Aravind Limbaval li, G. Basavanappa, Nagaraj N. Vemulkar, M.P. Venkatesh, and Sunil Vyalapur. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE, JULY 18. The President of the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party and MP for Bangalore South, H.N. Ananth Kumar, has called for according the Scheduled Caste status to the members of the Bhovi community in the country.

He was participating at a convention of the Bhovi community organised by the Karnataka Bhovi Welfare Association to honour the new legislators from the community.

Five of the new legislators from the community — G. Basavanappa, M.P. Venkatesh, Sunil Vyalapur, S. Raghu, and Arvind Limbavalli — and the former president of the State Bhovi Welfare Association, Nagaraj Vemulkar, were felicitated on the occasion.

While the State Government had accorded the Scheduled Caste status to members of the Bhovi community, they were listed under the Other Backward Classes in other States. The argument is that granting them the Scheduled Caste tag will hasten their progress.

Mr. Ananth Kumar assured the gathering that he would raise the issue of reservation in the Lok Sabha and would also enlist the support of the party's senior leader and former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, L.K. Advani, in favour of the demand. Although there were more than five crore Bhovis in the country, only two per cent of them were educated. The population of Bhovis in the State was around 40 lakhs. Bhovi leaders should impress upon the members of the community to become educated and pursue professional courses. He appreciated the contribution of the community in various fields. They had also put in a lot of effort in the building of magnificent temples and edifices across the country, he added.

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