‘Make provision to count OBCs during census’

Following a push from Speaker Nana Patole, the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday cleared a resolution to send a recommendation to the Centre to incorporate counting

Following a push from Speaker Nana Patole, the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday cleared a resolution to send a recommendation to the Centre to incorporate counting of the other backward classes (OBC) community separately in the upcoming census.

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The move brought to the fore lack of coordination between the ruling partners in the state. It came as a surprise to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, who wanted the demand to be taken up in the next session of the Legislature. However, OBC leaders Patole and NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal took a strong stand. The lower house passed the resolution unanimously through a voice vote.

This means, the Assembly will recommend to the Centre to have in the census a separate column for the OBC, along with Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities. It is a long-pending demand of the outfits and leaders from the community, as they believe it will give clarity on the exact population across the country, and accordingly the reservation and other welfare benefits.

On Wednesday, a one-day session of the state legislature was called specially to ratify the extension of reservation to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities for the next 10 years. After the Bill was cleared, the Speaker moved the resolution on OBCs before the House.

“Currently, there is no data for the community to get its share of benefit in reservation and other facilities. I want the House to discuss and clear the resolution today only,” Patole said.

The resolution got support from Bhujbal who is seen as the OBC face of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). “The procedure for census has started and if we don’t clear this resolution today, it may not be included in the upcoming census,” Bhujbal said, urging the members of the house to approve it. “It is a long-pending demand. Whenever the issue of extending welfare benefits to the OBC communities crops up, it gets stuck as population data is not available. The last caste-based census was conducted in 1933, which can’t be considered in the current scenario.” While Thackeray expressed surprise, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar said the resolution should have been moved in the upcoming Budget session of the state legislature as it needed proper discussion. The chief minister later met the Speaker and expressed his unhappiness over the way the resolution was brought in, without taking him into confidence in the Assembly, said another insider. “Only Bhujbal was kept in the loop. He was the first person to support the resolution,” said an insider. “It is the prerogative of the Speaker, but we haven’t discussed it even in the business advisory committee,” said Pawar.

State parliamentary affairs minister Anil Parab, too, said the resolution could have been brought up in the Budget session.

In the evening, Patole also met NCP chief Sharad Pawar at YB Chavan Centre. The details of the meeting are not known, but it is believed that Pawar, too, expressed unhappiness over Patole’s style of functioning.

Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis, too, extended his support to the resolution. “We are in favour of the resolution,” Fadnavis said, after which it was cleared with unanimity.

The OBCs get 27% reservation in government jobs and education in the state. But the community is not satisfied with it, considering the number of communities incorporated in the category.

“We welcome the move and census of the OBC community is need of the hour. More than 346 communities come under the OBC category, which means its benefit get divided among so many communities, so you can imagine the ratio of benefit. Once, we come to know our population, our demand for hike in reservation can be justified,” said Chandrakant Bavkar, president, OBC Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti.