Bengaluru: Chief minister Siddaramaiah Wednesday directed officials to implement internal reservation among Scheduled Castes forthwith, and to ensure that no caste faces injustice in the roster system. At a review meeting, he told officials steps should be taken to “properly” implement the cabinet’s decisions on the issue, and that all grievances regarding roster implementation must be heard and verified to prevent any caste from facing injustice. In keeping with a Supreme Court decision, the state govt introduced a new roster system last week, drawing criticism from some communities that alleged their members would secure fewer posts due to perceived injustice in finalising the roster. Siddaramaiah instructed officials to review all grievances, verify, and resolve them. He said detailed guidelines were released on issuing caste certificates, and that age limits for candidates seeking recruitment were relaxed. Recruitment notifications have already been issued by Karnataka Examination Authority. Ministers G Parameshwara, HC Mahadevappa, KH Muniyappa, Shivaraj Tangadagi, HK Patil, Priyank Kharge, RB Timmappur and chief secretary Shalini Rajneesh, among others, took part in the meeting. Meanwhile, members failed to take a stand on providing a separate 1% reservation for Alemari communities. Members of these communities have been staging protests, urging the govt to implement recommendations of the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission. Alemari communities have objected to the caste matrix, since they would have to compete with Holeyas for a combined 6% reservation. Though the issue was discussed in the meeting, no resolution emerged. Under the previous matrix, they had an exclusive 1% quota. Meanwhile, lakhs of job aspirants are waiting for the govt to begin recruitment which was halted in Oct last year following the formation of the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission to finalise the reservation matrix. The govt recently issued notification to fill only 708 vacancies across various departments. Official data shows there are over 2.7 lakh vacancies across 43 govt departments.
