The Karnataka government Friday decided to scrap the 4 per cent reservation granted to Muslims under the 2B category and placed them under the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation category. The 4 per cent reservation will be shared by two dominant communities of the state—Vokkaligas and Lingayats. Vokkaligas, who were included under the 2C category created in December 2022, will get 6 per cent reservation and Lingayats, falling under the newly created 2D category, will get 7 per cent reservation, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said after a cabinet meeting. Panchamasalis, a sub-sect of Lingayats, have been demanding a bigger quota saying the 5 per cent reservation offered to the Lingayat community is insufficient to meet the sub-sect's requirements. It was during the tenure of H D Deve Gowda as chief minister that reservation under the 2B category was announced for Muslims, taking into account the poor representation of the community in government jobs. As per the 2011 census, Muslims form around 13 per cent of the state population. Bommai said there was no constitutional provision to provide reservation for religious minorities. “Since we did not want to cause any problems to religious minorities, we decided on a proactive move,” he said. Muslims will be shifted from the 4 per cent pool under 2B to the 10 per cent EWS pool, where Bommai said the community would get more opportunities. There will be no division in the EWS quota and all communities that do not benefit from other reservation are eligible, he said. Bommai, however, said reservation granted to 12 Muslim sub-castes such as Pinjara, Nadaf and others under Category 1 would not be affected. The government will form a board for the development of these backward communities, he said. The cabinet also cleared internal reservation in the 17 per cent quota meant for around 101 Scheduled Castes. The SC left category, which consists of 29 communities including Madigas, will get 6 per cent of the quota, whereas the SC right, with around 25 communities such as Holeyas, will get 5.5 per cent. Touchable communities such as Banjaras and Bhovis will have 4.5 per cent of the quota and other communities in the category will get the remaining 1 per cent. It may be recalled that the state government hiked SC reservation from 15 to 17 per cent and the ST quota from 3 to 7 per cent in October 2022. Bommai said that a government order notifying the reservation changes would be out soon. Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister J C Madhuswamy said the new reservation matrix would come into force once it is cleared by the Union government.
