Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has announced his government’s plans to extend the benefits of enhanced reservation to backward class (BC) communities in education and employment sectors, not just confining it to local bodies.
The Chief Minister announced that irrespective of whether the Central government permits enhancement of reservation for backward classes or not, the Congress has decided to give 42 per cent seats in the local body elections to them. “Will the BRS and the BJP come forward to emulate this?” he asked. He said the government has conducted the comprehensive Socio, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political and Caste survey with an aim to prepare an accurate database pertaining to various castes, the BCs in particular, so that they could enjoy the benefits of welfare and development schemes. The survey conducted over a period of 50 days covered 3.54 crore individuals constituting 96.9 per cent of the population in a scientific and systematic exercise.
Mr. Revanth Reddy was replying to queries by MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi and others during a debate on the caste census in the special session of the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. He asserted that the data collected through the survey would be used to formulate evidence-based policies for the welfare of SC, ST, BC and other weaker sections of the State. The initiative was reflective of the government’s commitment to equitable growth and addressing the diverse needs of the population. “It marks a new era of governance driven by data, inclusivity and transparency,” he said.
He asserted that unlike the previous BRS government which never made public the details of the Samagra Kutumba Survey, the Congress government owned the details of the door-to-door survey covering 1.12 crore of the 1.15 crore households in the State. He said the last caste-based census was conducted prior to independence in 1931 and the general census exercise had mention of only scheduled castes and tribes.
Hence, there was no accurate data pertaining to backward classes resulting in severe hardships in reaching out the benefits of welfare schemes to these sections. Given this background, the Congress had assured to conduct caste survey as and when it came to power and accordingly conducted the survey deploying over 1.03 lakh personnel and spending ₹160 crore.
“Among the people who abstained from the survey are BRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao, working president K.T. Rama Rao, senior leaders T. Harish Rao and T. Padma Rao and BJP MP D.K. Aruna. I request the Chair not to give mike to the people who abstained from the survey,” he said.
He attributed this to the presence of column in the prescribed format seeking details about the land holdings of the individuals and families. The Chief Minister was critical of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government for not taking up census exercise since it took over the reins in 2014. “Why is the Centre not inclined to conduct census operations?” he said.
