The cabinet is said to have decided on Monday to amend the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Act to ensure that reservation for the civic body does not exceed 50% of the seats.
At present, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Act states that reservation for Scheduled Caste, ST and OBC should be 33%.
The cabinet decision is to ensure that political reservation offered by the BBMP is in line with the directions issued by the Supreme Court, which has asked states to follow a three-pronged test to decide the quota.
The government has already formed a committee to determine political backwardness of OBCs based on the top court’s directions to provide reservation for these castes in local bodies.
Recruitment rules
The Cabinet also cleared an amendment to the Karnataka Appointment of Gazetted Probationers Rules. Under this, if candidates selected for Grade A and B posts refuse to take charge during the recruitment process, such posts will be considered vacant and filled up during the next recruitment drive.
Currently, if a candidate does not take up the job, then those ranked lower in the merit list were considered to fill the vacancies. However, this had caused confusion and resulted in litigation. The government has decided to do away with the practice to avoid the same, sources said.