Bhubaneswar: Opposition BJP and Congress Monday slammed the state government over its move for simultaneous enumeration of the socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) and other backward classes (OBC)/castes along with the general Census.
Speaking to reporters here, BJP state general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said that during its 20 years of rule, the BJD government has never taken any initiative for the socio-economic development of OBCs.
“The gross apathy of the state government towards the setting up of an OBC Commission makes it evident that it does not want the development of the OBCs,” Harichandan said.
He also said that except Odisha, other states have implemented 27 per cent reservation for the SEBC and OBC communities for their education and employment. “Let the state government come up with a clarification on this matter,” he demanded.
Similarly, the state Congress has claimed that the demand of the state government to conduct the Socio Economic Caste Census with the 2021 Census was nothing but a case of appeasement politics.
At a presser, Pradesh Congress leader Satya Prakash Nayak accused the BJD-ruled government of trying to do vote bank politics through making such demand. The leader also claimed that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is anti-OBC and has never cared for the rights of the backward classes.
He said, “The decision of the state government to demand for the Caste census in 2021 is a case of vote bank politics. Naveen Patnaik has never cared for the OBCs and backward castes.”
Nayak also said that the reservation granted to the backward castes is their rights safeguarded by the Constitution which the states cannot overrule. But in Odisha the OBCs are deprived of their rights.
“The CM should not have dissolved the OBC Commission in 2006 if he had really cared for the OBCs. Even despite the intervention and direction of the Orissa High Court to form such a panel, the state government defied the court orders too,” Nayak said.
The Congress leader cited the 2011 HC order wherein the court had directed the state government to reconstitute the Commission but the state never complied with it. “It shows how serious Naveen Patnaik is about the welfare of the people from backward classes,” he added.
However, BJD appealed to the opposition parties to refrain from doing politics over the issue.
“Since BJP is in power at the Centre, I request my BJP friends instead of entering into a war of words they should pressurise the Union government to release community-based data of SECC 2011 and provide suitable columns in the General Census 2021 or provide an additional sheet to capture caste-based data,” said BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra.
Patra clarified that the state government is in favour of providing reservations to OBCs but there is a bar from the court that reservations cannot exceed 50 per cent in aggregate and hence the need to submit caste-related data to the court was felt. “It is unfortunate that the Centre is yet to release community-based data of SECC 2011,” he added.
