Poor students paid Rs 1k each to get caste certificate:Watchdog

BENGALURU: In a shocking revelation of the lack of awareness of the Sakala Scheme in Kalaburgi, a watchdog that monitors its functioning has revealed that the poorest of students in the district have paid up to Rs 1,000 to get certificates meant to be handed over to them free.
Speaking to the New Indian Express on the sidelines of a programme organised at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) campus, S S Hiremath, Co-ordinator of Karnataka Sakala Watch, said his group had organised two rounds of awareness programmes for PU students at Aland and Kalaburgi taluks in the district.

“We met nearly 500 PU students by end of November and spoke to them about Sakala. We were shocked to hear from them that 50 percent of them had each paid Rs 1,000 to get the Caste and Income certificates for admission from SSLC to the PU stream,” Hiremath, also an RTI activist, said. “Imagine these are students from the most backward parts of Karnataka and this amount really means a lot to their families.”
The shocking part is that most of them had not even heard of the word ‘Sakala’, he added. Apart from these two taluks, the group also keeps a close tab on the other five taluks of Jawargi, Afzalur, Chittapur, Chincholi and Sedam.

Sharing the experience, the co-ordinator said the revenue tahsildars in all the places regularly turn down applications given under Sakala without any genuine reasons to back it. “If you go through middlemen, your job gets done,” he said.

Small-time businessman Santosh Bhairamadgi shared his experience when he attempted to get a Class IV contractor licence at the PWD department in Kalaburgi taluk. “As soon as I told them I wanted an application for the licence, a staff member told me it would cost Rs 5,000. I told them I wanted an acknowledgment of the application under the Sakala scheme,” he recalled. The staffer instantly said, “It costs you only Rs 2,500 and took the right amount from me,” Bhairamadgi said.

Sakala ACT covers total 729 services

The Sakala Act 2011 is a key legislation that guarantees timely delivery of government service to all its citizens. Aimed at empowering citizens by promising administrative accountability, Sakala covers 729 services of different departments.