Siddaramaiah Cabinet okays repeal of anti-conversion law, revision of school textbooks

BENGALURU: In a major development, the Congress government has decided to repeal the anti-conversion law, drop certain parts of school textbooks in the current academic year and also make reading of the Preamble of the Constitution compulsory in all schools.

Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Law Minister H K Patil said it was decided to scrap Sections 20 and 22 of the Karnataka Right to Freedom of Religion Bill, introduced by the previous BJP government in 2020-2022. A Bill will be introduced in the next Assembly session, he said. “The Cabinet took up 17 issues for discussion. Among them was revision of school textbooks too”, he added.

Primary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa said that since textbooks have already reached schoolchildren, a Sethu Bindu supplementary book of about 15 pages will be issued. “We are bringing back lessons on Savithribhai Phule and Jawaharlal Nehru’s ‘Letters from a Father to His Daughter’ and Dr B R Ambedkar while dropping lessons on RSS founder Hedgewar, Veer Savarkar and those written by Chakravarthi Sulibele which were introduced by the BJP government”, he said.

Some parts of the textbooks for Classes 6 to 10 will be revised this year itself and a committee will be set up for complete revision of textbooks from next year. “The BJP government had revised 75 per cent of the textbooks and we have held 10 meetings to discuss the revisions to be made. We will set up a committee soon and completely revise the textbooks for next year”, he added.

Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa said photos of the Preamble of the Constitution will have to be installed in all government officies. Also, schoolchildren will have to compulsorily recite the Preamble in all private an government schools along with the national and state anthems.

Law Minister H K Patil, Primary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa and Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar said the Cabinet also decided to postpone the launch of registration for the Gruha Lakshmi scheme by 4-5 days as the E-Governance Department has sought time. Also, applications will be received at the Bapuji Seva Kendras and the staff hvae to be trained, she said. She also said that beneficiaries of Gruha Jyothi scheme will be given time till September this year to pay their dues.

Law Minister Patil, who briefed about the other issues discussed in the Cabinet meeting, said approval has been given for increasing administrative expenses of the Karnataka High Court and the CM has been authorised to appoint member to the Karnataka Public Services Commission (KPSC) in vacant posts.

Funds of Rs 17.98 crore have been approved for the Bengaluru Tech Summit. The Cabinet also approved a revised estimate of Rs 1,081 crore of the Minor Irrigation Department for development of lakes in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Tumakuru and Chikkaballapur districts, Patil said.