Amid misgivings by the dominant Veerashaiva-Lingayats and Vokkaliga communities over the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey (caste census) by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, another controversy has erupted over the missing documents from the erstwhile H. Kantharaj Commission that conducted the survey. However, the data collected for the census, for which signatures of Mr. Kantharaj, commission members, and member-secretary were affixed, is intact, commission sources said.
It now emerges that the original report of the Kantharaj commission has been missing following which the commission communicated with the then commission’s member-secretary N.V. Prasad, seeking his response. Commission sources said that despite reminders, it has not received any response. While the printed copies of the Kantharaj commission report had scanned signatures of Mr. Kantharaj and other members, the signature of the member-secretary is missing, the commission’s official communication, copies of which are with The Hindu, show.
Following the 214th special meeting of the commission in August 2021 during which it was decided to open four sealed trunks containing the Kantharaj commission’s findings, the current commission is learnt to have found printed books containing the data, the main report and two compact discs. The commission, it is learnt, had decided to seek additional information from the then member-secretary since his name figured in the report. In the absence of a reply, the commission in August 2022 wanted to know from Mr. Prasad if he had dissented with the report findings as he had not affixed the signature. Commission sources said they did not receive response for both communications.
