Survey for internal quota ill-planned, says Karnataka BJP

Bengaluru: The survey ordered in preparation for the rollout of the internal reservation matrix came in for criticism from the state BJP which dubbed the exercise “hurried and ill-planned.”

On Sunday, Karnataka BJP took to ‘X’ to point out the problems. "Schoolteachers and anganwadi workers tasked with collecting data for the survey, were trained for only three hours. This has resulted in data collected being riddled with errors," it said.

The party also cited statements by leaders of both 'Right' (Chalavadi) and 'Left' (Madiga) communities, calling into question the reliability and quality of data.

The BJP said enumerators were not given good smartphones, which rendered downloading and operating the 'caste survey’ app difficult. "There have been reports of frequent shutdown of servers," it said.

The post on 'X' said lack of literacy among Dalits meant they had not been able to furnish accurate answers to the "complex" questionnaire. Urging the government to replace the questionnaire with a simpler one, the BJP said, "Any negligence could severely compromise the integrity of the internal reservation process."