BJP demands cast-wise enumeration of OBCs

Hyderabad, Apr 11: Former Union Minister and National Executive Member of the BJP Bandaru Dattatraya today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to undertake cast-wise enumeration of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the ongoing Census 2011 to get them their due share in the reservations.

In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister, copy of which was made available to the press, he said it was the long pending demand and the aspirations of the scores of people belonging to the backward castes for enumeration of their population caste-wise.

He said the nationwide Census 2011 was considered to the biggest ever census attempted in the history of mankind and it was going to be a mammoth exercise given the size, diversity and population of India.

He also said the census was a significant exercise for two important reasons. It gives a sense of the actual population in figures with other statistical details which would help formulate developmental schemes that would benefit all and reach even to the last rung of the society.

Another important reason was the increasing threat nation had been facing from terrorism which has become a global phenomenon with focus on India. There have been reports that a large number of foreign nationals, especially from Bangladesh, had been living in India with more than three crore people illegally sneaking into India and living as Indian citizens.

There was a perception that those who were missing were aiding terrorists who had become a threat to the very sovereignty of India.

The Census was an occasion which would help the administration to trace and deport all illegal migrants, Mr Dattatraya explained.

He said democracy thrives and development happens only when equal and equitable distribution of resources takes place. In order to ensure equal and equitable distribution of resources, it was important and imperative to collect socio educational and economic status of the disadvantaged people to design schemes for their empowerment.