K'taka govt constitutes cabinet sub-committee on SC internal reservation
Bengaluru, Dec 13: The Karnataka government on Tuesday constituted a five-member cabinet sub-committee to make recommendations on providing internal reservation for Scheduled Castes (SC).
Internal reservation among SCs has been a long standing demand from these communities, and this move by the government has come five months ahead of assembly polls in Karnataka.
Headed by Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy, the sub-committee consists of Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol, Fisheries Minister S Angara, Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan and Health Minister K Sudhakar.
Karjol, Angara and Chauhan are from the SC community.
The sub-committee is expected to go through Justice A J Sadashiva Commission report, which had recommended internal reservation for communities among the Scheduled Castes.
The Commission, which looked into methods of equitable distribution of reservation facilities among SCs, in its report submitted to the government in 2012, has recommended internal reservation among the castes by broadly reclassifying all the 101 castes into four groups (Right, Left, Touchables and other SCs).
A large-scale protest was held in the city on Sunday, seeking implementation of the Justice Sadashiva Commission report .
The internal reservation demand has resurfaced following the Karnataka government's recent decision increasing the SC/ST reservation in the state. Reservation for SCs was increased from 15 to 17 per cent and for STs from three to seven per cent.
Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah had recently said that "Once we come back to power, Congress will take everyone into confidence and send the recommendation to the Central government to implement the Justice Sadashiva Commission report."
It was said that Siddaramaiah led Congress government's (2012-18) "inaction" in implementing the report had angered the SC-Left, who feel that the reservation's benefits are largely enjoyed by the SC-Right, and it had led to the community (SC-Left) moving away from the Congress during 2018 assembly polls, contributing to its polls debacle.
There are also reports of some apprehensions within the ruling BJP regarding internal reservation's "benefit" for the party, as some sections among SC like touchable Dalits (Lambanis and Bhovis among others) are said to be not in its favour, fearing that it may affect their prospects.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
