Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has initiated the process of identifying around 30,000 acres across the state that would be distributed to members of the most socially backward castes that have lost out on state benefits over the years.

Social welfare minister H. Anjaneya said the state government will try to distribute much of its own land and also look to acquire private land by paying as much as three times the market value (guidance value as base) to help distribution of at least around two acres per family.

The minister said the state government had around Rs1,500 crore to fund the exercise through the Dr Ambedkar Development Corporation.

With assembly polls due in 2018, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government is looking to implement the 2012 justice A.J. Sadashiva commission report, which recommended providing internal reservations among scheduled caste (SC) communities.

The commission recommended that SCs be reclassified into four groups for equitable distribution of the overall reservation of 15% given to the community, The Hindu reported on 15 June 2012.

The state government also carried out the controversial caste census which Anjaneya said would be made public in the last week of December or the first week of January.

Anjaneya, an SC activist, said the Madiga community under the SC had not been getting the benefits of reservation and argued that internal reservation should be provided to this backward community based on population.

But the Congress has faced resistance from its own ranks with many SC leaders against the implementation of the Sadashiva commission report.

Political parties ensured that the topic was discussed in the just concluded winter session of the Karnataka assembly with leaders from major political parties trying to champion the cause, which is likely to have a significant impact on the 2018 election.

Meanwhile, landless labourers staged protests spearheaded by freedom fighter and activist H.S. Doreswamy, with whom Siddaramaiah held a meeting.

“Though some lands have been given to the landless, the government should make it a policy to ensure everyone gets land," Doreswamy said in Belagavi on 22 November.

He said the government had only two years to ensure landless labourers got their share.

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