ಉತ್ತರ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಸರ್ಕಾರಿ ಹುದ್ದೆಗಳ ಖಾಲಿ ಗಂಟು: 371(ಜೆ) ಅಡಿಯ ಬಾಕಿGovernment job vacancies in North Karnataka: the backlog under 371(J)

Government job vacancies in North Karnataka: the backlog under 371(J)

*Development of North Karnataka is the fundamental mantra — "ಉತ್ತರ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿಯೇ ಮೂಲ ಮಂತ್ರ."*

A government job is more than a salary. In our districts it is a doctor in the taluk hospital, a teacher in the village school, a clerk who keeps a family out of debt. Article 371(J) was meant to protect exactly that — and on paper it does. In practice, the posts are sanctioned, then left empty for years. This is the backlog we want to talk about plainly, with numbers, not slogans.

What 371(J) actually promised

Article 371(J) was added to the Constitution by the 98th Amendment in 2012. It gave the Kalyana Karnataka districts — Kalaburagi, Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari and Vijayanagara — special status, a development board, and roughly 8% reservation in state government jobs and education for local candidates. It rested on the Dr. D. M. Nanjundappa Committee (2002), which found 114 of Karnataka's 175 taluks "backward," with our region the worst, and recommended an eight-year Special Development Plan of about ₹31,000 crore.

That was the promise. Reservation is only real, however, when the posts behind it are actually filled.

The backlog, in the government's own numbers

The clearest, best-documented evidence sits in public health — government jobs our families depend on:

• Gadag Institute of Medical Sciences: of 241 sanctioned posts, 101 were vacant — about 42% empty.
• Koppal Institute of Medical Sciences: 20 specialist-doctor posts vacant, in a 450-bed facility.
• Karwar Institute of Medical Sciences issued nine recruitment calls in three years and received not a single application.
• Across taluk hospitals, the state's own upgrade plan still left 114 radiologist, 21 anaesthetist, 19 paediatrician and 11 obstetrician posts unfilled.
• State-wide, Karnataka has reported on the order of 1,200 to over 1,800 vacant specialist-doctor posts in government hospitals, with recruitment rounds repeatedly delayed.

These are not the party's allegations. They are on the record — from the Comptroller and Auditor General and from the state's own departments. And a sanctioned-but-empty post is the very face of the backlog: a reservation that exists on paper but reaches no one.

And the CAG agrees nothing changed

A Comptroller and Auditor General audit in 2022 concluded that, despite the funds released, Kalyana Karnataka "continued to remain backward" on key development and socio-economic indicators even after the 371(J) board was set up. Money was released; the gap did not close. When posts go unfilled and funds go unspent, a constitutional protection becomes a paper guarantee.

The line stops in the wrong place

There is a second injustice. Article 371(J) protects only Kalyana Karnataka. The seven Kittur Karnataka districts — Belagavi, Dharwad, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Gadag, Haveri and Uttara Kannada — have no equivalent job-and-education protection at all. A young person in Bagalkot or Belagavi competes for state posts with no regional shield, while sitting in a region the Nanjundappa report itself called backward.

We are not blaming anyone

We make this case against a policy pattern, not against any community, government or officer. A specialist does not refuse a Yadgir posting out of contempt — housing, schools, equipment and a career path are simply not there. Fix the conditions and the posts get filled. That is a correctable policy failure, not a moral one.

What we demand

1. Publish a district-by-district roster of every sanctioned government post in the 14 North-Karnataka districts: how many sanctioned, how many filled, how many vacant, with a dated plan to close each gap.
2. Fill the backlog on a time-bound calendar — starting with health and education, where the empty chairs cost lives and futures.
3. A "hard-area" service package — real rural-posting allowance, staff housing, schooling and a guaranteed career pathway — so recruitment drives stop drawing zero applications.
4. Use the 371(J) reservation fully in Kalyana Karnataka, and extend Article 371(J) to all seven Kittur-Karnataka districts, so the whole of North Karnataka is protected.
5. Implement the Nanjundappa Special Development Plan in full, and report annually — allocated, spent, posts filled — so the CAG's "still backward" verdict is never repeated.

A reservation that is never filled is not a right. It is a delay. We intend to end the delay.