Discussions inconclusive, decision on internal reservation for Scheduled Castes put off

Bengaluru: The cabinet Thursday deferred a decision on the vexed issue of internal reservation for Scheduled Castes, with chief minister Siddaramaiah and his ministers reaching no conclusion after lengthy discussions.A decision will be taken at another meeting after opinions are gathered from all sides. The timing of the next meeting will be decided by the CM.
HK Patil, law and parliamentary affairs minister, said the govt remained committed to implementing internal reservation. He clarified that the ongoing recruitment process to fill 56,432 vacancies will continue without any change for now and that the cabinet would deliberate again before providing clarity on the issue. "There is no hurdle to call for applications," said Patil. Earlier in the day, Siddaramaiah met with the Advocate General and Justice Nagamohan Das, who headed a one-man commission, to examine the options available to the govt to implement internal reservation within the existing 15% quota for Scheduled Castes. Facing immense pressure to fill more than two lakh vacancies, the govt had decided to go ahead with recruitment adhering to 50% cap on overall reservation. This meant the enhanced quota of 17% for SCs and STs was put on hold although departments were told to set aside an additional 2% and 4% jobs respectively for the two communities. This would kick in if the high court allowed reservation to go up to 17% and beyond the overall 50% cap decreed by the Supreme Court. However, some ministers including KH Muniyappa and RB Timmapur, had isnisted the govt ensure reservation within the existing 15% as well. Separately, the cabinet also reviewed the health department's proposal to invoke the Essential Services Management Act (ESMA) against health professionals — both permanent and contractual staff — who had threatened to go on strike. "The cabinet has asked the health minister to hold discussions with health professionals and try and reason with them to resolve the ongoing crisis," said Patil. He said the cabinet had advised the department against invoking ESMA for now. The cabinet also approved amendments to the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act to enable municipal bodies to charge market rates for advertising boards within their jurisdictions. "There was an ongoing legal issue on charging market rates," said the law minister. It also approved Rs 62 crore to purchase BS VI diesel buses for KSRTC for inter-city operations.