BANGALORE: Minister for Social Welfare Balachandra Jarkiholi assured the Legislative Council that the Government will constitute a backward class commission, comprising a chairman, five members and a member-secretary, by the end of this month.

Replying to a question by Arvind Limbavali in the House on Monday Mr. Jarkiholi said an estimated 68,000 teachers would be employed to conduct a census of backward class people in April and May.

The Centre had released Rs. 20 crore and the State had earmarked Rs. 7 crore for the purpose. The Government would ask the proposed commission to submit its report in December, he added.

The Government constituted the last backward class commission on February 22, 1993.

According to procedures, the commission was expected conduct a social, educational, economic and a house-to-house survey of backward class people. But the commission did not conduct such a survey.

The Government "proposed " to get such a survey conducted by the proposed commission, he explained.

To a supplementary question, the Minister said that according to the survey conducted by the commission in 1984, the total population of people belonging to the backward classes was 2,71,86,141, which came to 75.26 per cent of the overall population of the State.

`Horrendous hostels'

On the "horrendous" state of Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes hostels across the State, the Minister admitted that the Government had faltered in providing basic amenities there.

"It is true that there are only four or five bathrooms in some hostels that have over 400 people each," he said and added that the Government had taken on rent over 1,000 buildings for running the hostels.

It would require an estimated Rs. 860 crore for providing adequate accommodation for all and the department hardly got Rs. 100 crore in the budget for the purpose. The Government had been constructing 300 hostels on its own to address the situation.

They would be completed by 2008, the Minister revealed.

Morarji schools

Mr. Jarkiholi said the Government had decided to withdraw the responsibility of executing certain schemes pertaining to the Morarji Desai Residential Schools from the zilla panchayats following public complaints.

Replying to Shashil G. Namoshi and others on confirming 800 teachers in Morarji Desai Residential Schools who were on contract, the Minister said that an order of the Supreme Court and other legal hurdles had prevented the Government from confirming their services.

However, the Government had been working out a method to absorb a minimum of 600 of them, he added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail