The Karnataka government today decided to include the Arasu community under backward classes 2A category giving its members "academic benefits" and reservation in recruitment.
Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar said the community's population was about 40,000.
They had actually been included under 2A in 1977 but subsequently had been dropped from the list by "various backward classes commissions".
In 2010, a committee headed by former Karnataka Backward Classes Commission, CS Dwarakanath, had recommended in a special report their inclusion in 2A category, Suresh Kumar noted.
