Karnataka - Bellary   

Madiga Dandora to hold rally today

By Our Staff Correspondent

BELLARY, AUG. 13. The Madiga Dandora, seeking internal reservation among the Scheduled Castes, is organising a torchlight rally in Bangalore on Saturday to protest against the failure of the Government to concede their long-pending demands.

Their demands include the appointment of a new chairman for the committee to study the issue of internal reservation.

The Madiga Dandora sought internal reservation by way of categorisation of communities based on their population.

The previous Government had constituted a one-man committee and appointed N.Y. Hanumanthappa as its chairman.

Mr. Hanumanthappa quit the post after getting the ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Chitradurga.

The Government is yet to appoint another chairman for the committee.

Demands

The other demands of the Madiga Dandora included, a stay on the filling up of backlog vacancies until the categorisation of castes was completed by the committee, a Government Order identifying the community as "Madiga" instead of "Adi Karnataka" or "Adi Dravida," representation for the community in the Cabinet, appointing members of the community to various Boards and Corporations, and extension of reservation benefits in the private sector based on population.

Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Hanumanthappa, Chitradurga MP, said that much of the spadework had been done by him when he was the chairman of the committee.

He said that a few more details, especially with regard to population of different communities under Scheduled Castes, had to be collected.

He said that he had convened a couple of meetings to ascertain the views of people under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories, officials of the concerned departments, and social scientists.

Survey

Mr. Hanumanthappa said that people from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories had not mentioned the sub-castes, which was important to ascertain the population of each community.

Internal reservation could only be made based on those figures, he said.

With that in view, he said that he had instructed the Deputy Commissioners to conduct a survey and submit the details. As the Deputy Commissioners were busy with the elections, the work could not be undertaken, he added.

"It is a noble cause. I am ready to offer my services if the Government wishes. Whether or not I am reappointed, as an MP I will raise my voice for the voiceless and strive hard for their uplift," he said.

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