Karnataka revenue dept to issue new SC caste certificates

Bengaluru: The revenue department will issue new caste certificates on Monday to members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) based on the new 6:6:5 categorisation of internal reservation made by the government. 

Revenue department principal secretary Rajender Kataria told DH that the National Informatics Centre (NIC) software was on trial and
that all arrangements had been made for its roll-out on Monday.

“The Atalji Janasnehi Kendra team is briefing all tahsildars on Monday on how to use the software and the process to be followed for issuing
certificates. The technical team is already in touch with the team on the field,” the officer said.

As per the draft certificates, a person needs to mention
his SC sub-caste and the category to which he belongs (A, B, C).

As per the government’s categorisation, 16 castes (Madigas and 15 affiliated castes) have been categorised under Group A, 19 castes (Holeyas and 18 affiliated castes) have been categorised under Group B and 63 castes (Lambanis, Bhovis, Kormas and Korchas and 59 ‘most backward’ communities’) have been categorised under Group C. 

If those belonging to Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida and Adi Andhra (AK, AD and AA) communities do not know their original caste, they can either register under Group A or Group B. However, the choice they make will be considered final.

“Around 60 lakh people have taken caste certificates by mentioning sub-castes. If they give their old RD number, they can take new caste certificates, in which new RD numbers will be mentioned. There will be a problem only for those mentioned as AK, AD and AA,” sources in the social welfare department told DH.

They said that the tahsildars would check the documents submitted by the applicants and issue caste certificates if there are no problems.

“If there are doubts, revenue inspectors will conduct spot inspection, speak to people nearby about their caste and prepare a report. Based on this, the tahsildar will issue caste certificates if he or she is convinced,” the sources added.