VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president N Raghuveera Reddy on Saturday wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing to him to release the findings of the ‘Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) conducted in 2011In the letter, a copy of which was released to the media, recalling the comments of the Prime Minister during the election campaign in Karnataka recently, he said instead of blaming the Congress party, Modi could have served the OBCs better by caring for them and releasing the caste-wise data of the SECC conducted in 2011. He said the lack of such data was a stumbling block for the empowerment of OBCs.
Raghuveera Reddy said the apex court had expressed its inability a number of times on deciding upon the quantum of reservation to be given to OBCs in jobs, education and local governments, in the absence of empirical data over OBC population. It was precisely the reason why the Manmohan Singh government, after deliberations with various political parties and social organisations, had approved the Socio-economic and Caste Census 2011.
He said though caste census was published in 2015, no caste-wise data of OBC population was released.
He said even details of sub-castes of SCs and STs were not disclosed, which only shows the lack of concern for SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).