The Karnataka government will undertake a fresh Social Educational Survey and it will be completed within 90 days, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the media on Thursday, June 12. The Social Educational Survey is more often referred to as the Karnataka caste survey.
Addressing the media at Vidhana Soudha after the Cabinet meeting, Siddaramaiah told reporters that the Social Educational Survey and the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes Act were discussed extensively. It was a “unanimous decision” to carry out a “new survey” and that the exercise would be completed within 90 days, he said.
He said that after going into the provisions of the Act, the Cabinet decided to conduct the survey afresh as 10 years had lapsed and that according to Section 11(1) and (2) of the Act said that periodic revision of lists is to be done every 10 years.
“Section 11 is clear that after 10 years a new survey has to be done, and that the Commission is supposed to be consulted. We will consult the Commission,” he said.
He said that the population would have increased in 10 years and many other changes too would have occurred.
Siddaramaiah also said that the survey had enumerated 5.98 crore out of the total population of 6.11 crore. The survey was started on April 11, 2015, and completed on May 30, 2015. Around 1.60 lakh staff and 1.33 lakh teachers had conducted the survey.
He said that the Congress could not accept the report during his previous tenure between 2013-18 as it had not been completed.
He then criticised the Janata Dal (Secular)-BJP coalition government for not accepting the report. He added that by 2018, the report had been completed and H Kantharaj, the then Backward Classes Commission Chairperson, tried to meet Puttaranga Shetty, the Backward Classes Minister at the time, to accept the report. “But HD Kumaraswamy put pressure so the report was not accepted.”
The CM also said that after Kantharaj’s tenure ended, the BJP appointed Jayaprakash Hedge as the chairperson and other BJP workers as members. “Jayaprakash Hegde made recommendations based on the report’s data and submitted them to the government on February 29, 2024,” he said.
Siddaramaiah added that the government could not discuss the report at the time as the Lok Sabha elections were announced. However, the government accepted the report and discussed it during Cabinet meetings in 2025.
To a question from journalists, Siddaramaiah said, “We have not bowed down to any diktat of the high command. The government acts according to the law.” He said that during this time, the Congress high command also gave him and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar guidance regarding the survey, but the state government did not bow to pressure from the senior leadership.
Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar had been summoned to New Delhi earlier this week to meet senior leaders to discuss the stampede in Bengaluru. During that meeting, senior party leaders had told them to re-do the survey.
To another question on whether the survey could be completed in 90 days, he replied that the Telangana government had done it in 50 days.
On whether any money had been set aside for the fresh survey, Siddaramaiah said social justice had to be delivered and that money would be spent for it.