In a historic decision that is expected to bring a closure to the more-than-three-decades-old struggle for internal reservation in Karnataka, the State Cabinet on Tuesday approved a reservation matrix slicing the 17% reservation for Scheduled Castes with 6% each to Dalit Right (Holeyas) and Dalit Left (Madigas) groups and 5% to Lambani, Korama, Koracha and Bhovis (touchable castes), along with 59 microscopic communities.The decision comes just over a year after the Supreme Court allowed internal reservation to be provided among Scheduled Castes. Government sources said that an ordinance with this regard will be promulgated after the Monsoon session, and prioritisation of categories will be spelt out.However, in what is seen as succumbing to Dalit right and touchable castes, the State Cabinet decided to drop 1% reservation to nomadic castes (the most disadvantaged) and 1% reservation given to Adi Karnataka, Adi Dravida and Adi Andhra, as recommended by the one-man commission headed by retired judge H.N. Nagamohan Das. The commission, which submitted its report on August 4, had recommended 5% reservation to Dalit Right, 6% to Dalit Left and 4% to touchable castes.From the five categories recommended by the commission, the Cabinet brought it down to three. Following the Cabinet decision, the Category E for AK, AD and AA as recommended by the commission will be merged with Dalit Right, while Category A recommended by the commission will go with touchable castes.While the commission has recommended categories based on backwardness besides the population as directed by the Supreme Court, the merger of Category A and Category E with touchables and Dalit Right, respectively, will now put most backward communities with relatively well off communities in terms of socio, economic and educational backwardness.Though the special Cabinet meeting was first scheduled for Saturday, it was postponed to Tuesday owing to lack of consensus, and Home Minister G. Parameshwara had been having parleys with five other Dalit ministers, and leaders to bring about a consensus. Retired Dalit officials, it is learnt, also played a part in the exercise. The Dalit Right groups and the touchable communities had opposed the categorisation since they felt their quota within the broader reservation had come down.Emerging out of Cabinet, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil termed the meeting as “fruitful”. “We have come out of Cabinet meeting happily. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will make a statement with this regard in the Legislature on Wednesday,” he said.Kannada and Culture and Backward Classes Minister Shivaraj Tangadagi said that for the purpose of internal reservation, the Cabinet has agreed to have three categories. When asked about disadvantaged communities being clubbed with better off communities, he said, “This is a historic decision taken under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. We are all together. Nobody will be left behind. Earlier, all communities were competing as a pool of 101 castes.”The commission after a two-month-long survey that started on May 5 covered 94% of the estimated 1.16 crore Scheduled Castes population in the State. However, it could cover just about 54% of the estimated 13 lakh population in Bengaluru City limits.Published - August 19, 2025 11:27 pm IST