- News>
- India
LS members demand detailed information on OBCs during census
Members, cutting across party lines, demanded in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that detailed information regarding the OBCs should be collected like SC and ST during the census operations beginning early next year to render proper justice to backward classes.
Members, cutting across party lines, demanded in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that detailed information regarding the OBCs should be collected like SC and ST during the census operations beginning early next year to render proper justice to backward classes.
They said that there was an urgent need to have a separate column in the census form for the backward classes as the last time such data was collected was way back in 1931.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, NCP leader Sharad Pawar said that if information about OBCs was collected in a separate entry in the census operations beginning in February next year, it would protect the interests of the backwards. He said that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has also issued a direction to the government in this regard.
Responding to the demand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan assured the house that since it was a major issue, the government would review the matter to see what could be done.
Appealing to members not to bring politics in the matter, he pointed out that the country had discontinued caste-based census way back in 1931 and said in the last 50 years no government had adopted such a practice.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, NCP leader Sharad Pawar said that if information about OBCs was collected in a separate entry in the census operations beginning in February next year, it would protect the interests of the backwards. He said that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has also issued a direction to the government in this regard.
Responding to the demand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan assured the house that since it was a major issue, the government would review the matter to see what could be done.
Appealing to members not to bring politics in the matter, he pointed out that the country had discontinued caste-based census way back in 1931 and said in the last 50 years no government had adopted such a practice.
Bureau Report