The Karnataka State Government recently passed an ordinance to increase the ceiling for tender works from Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore for contractors belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, just before the model code of conduct for the assembly elections came into effect. N Mahadevaswamy, president of the Karnataka SC/ST Contractors’ Association, welcomed the decision and said that it would benefit a large number of contractors from these communities.
The association had been demanding an increase in the ceiling for tender works for SC/ST contractors for the past couple of years. The Congress government introduced reservation in public tender works in 2016, with 24.1% of public works under Rs 50 lakh reserved for SC/ST contractors. The current government had recently increased the quota of reservation for SC and ST communities to 17% and 7%, respectively, and also introduced internal reservation for various sections of Scheduled Castes under four categories.
The Congress government, led by former CM Siddaramaiah, had introduced the reservation in public tender works. The Karnataka government amended the Transparency in Public Procurement Bill to provide reservations to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe members for government contracts in 2016. The reservation of 17.5% for Dalit contractors and 6.95% for ST contractors apply to the works of Panchayat Raj, the Public Works Department, and Urban Local Bodies.