K'taka Cabinet decides to abolish 3A, 3B category of OBC to replace with 2C and 2D
Belagavi, Dec 29: The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday decided to do away with the 3A and 3B category of the Other Backward Caste and replace them with the newly introduced 2C and 2D categories.
The Economically Weaker Section from the upper caste such as Brahmins Vaishyas and Jains will be accommodated in the newly formed 2C and 2D categories.
The decision comes amid demand by the two dominant communities of the poll-bound Karnataka the Panchamasalis of the Lingayat sect and Vokkaligas to include them in the 2A category as there were many people living in abject poverty.
"We are making only two categories one is SC/ST and another is 'Two'. We are not changing the reservation or the number of people in it in the 2A and 2B, we are creating 2C and 2D," State Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy briefed reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
The 2C and 2D will accommodate people who were in the 3A and 3B categories, the Minister explained.
Those who were in 3A such as Vokkaligas and others will now be in 2C and those in the 3B category such as Lingayats and others, will be in the 2D category, Madhuswamy said.
Those in the 2C and 2D will continue to avail the facilities given to them under the 3A and 3B categories, the Minister explained.
He also clarified that those in the 2A and 2B will not be touched. Their education, employment or political reservation will not be disturbed, he added.
According to him, the state government decided to do away with the 3A and 3B categories based on the recommendations of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.
"We have decided to give consent to bring the people in the Category-3 to the Category-2, which is also recommended by the KSCBC," Madhuswamy told reporters.
About the EWS, he said that the government had to make provision for the reservation for it after the constitutional amendment, which was upheld by the Supreme Court, to increase the 10 per cent reservation for the Economically Weaker Section.
The Minister explained that only those EWS who have not been covered under any reservation, can avail the quota benefit up to 10 per cent.
"We will take the EWS population based on the 2011 census to decide the reservation to be provided to them. We will be able to save the quota for the EWS because there is no community (in the EWS category) left to avail 10 per cent reservation," Madhuswamy said.
The EWS will be accommodated in the 2C or 2D category, he added.
According to the Minister, 2A are the most backward communities and 2B are moderate backward and thus they should not be touched in terms of their population for reservation.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
