Baghel writes to Modi, calls for separate column on OBC in census

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get the Census conducted while setting a separate column for the OBCs.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get the Census conducted while setting a separate column for the other backward classes (OBCs).

Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. (ANI)

In a letter to the prime minister on Tuesday, Baghel said that necessary initiatives and decisions should be taken at the earliest on the “important and sensitive” issue of reservation for OBCs.

“In April 2023, I had requested for the benefit of 27% reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) of Chhattisgarh and to include this subject in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. I am sure you will agree that it is necessary to provide reservation to the larger population of OBCs, who have been deprived of socio-political rights for centuries. Such a decision is necessary to keep up the spirit of equality and social justice provided by the Constitution,” Baghel said in the letter.

Legislations included in the Ninth Schedule of Constitution are exempted from judicial review.

Baghel further said that the state assembly in December last year unanimously passed a bill to implement 32%, 13%, 27% and 4% reservations for those from the Scheduled Tribes (ST), Scheduled Castes (SC), OBCs and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), respectively. However, the bill is still “pending for approval in the Raj Bhavan”, he added.

Baghel said that denying constitutional rights to this major part of population will inevitably upset them. “It is beyond comprehension that despite all the efforts of the state government, people belonging to OBCs are not being provided the benefit of 27% reservation,” he added in the letter.

Baghel urged the Union government to conduct the census with a separate column for OBCs to provide justice to people belonging to the community. The last census was held in 2011.

To be sure, the last census that officially collected overall caste data was held in 1931. Held once a decade, the census does not record any caste data other than for those listed as SCs.

The demand for a caste-based survey has gained momentum across the country, particularly by a number of opposition parties, including the Congress, hoping that an enumeration of castes will be a game-changer in reversing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s deep inroads into the backward groups, and countering religious polarisation.

Chhattisgarh will go to assembly elections later this year.

Baghel also requested the prime minister to shift the headquarters of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) from Hyderabad to Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh).