BHUBANESWAR: Targeting the Odisha government for ignoring the interests of other backward classes (OBCs), the BJP on Monday threatened to stage a Statewide agitation over the issue.
Stating that reservation for OBCs has nothing to do with the census program of the Centre, president of BJP OBC Morcha Surath Biswal said the State government will have to take a decision on this based on its assessment of the OBC population. The State government should have conducted a survey to determine the population of OBCs in Odisha. Biswal said without doing what is required, the government is trying to escape by putting the blame on the Centre and the Supreme Court. “This has exposed the State government’s lack of sincerity in initiating caste-based census,” he said.
Biswal said the governments of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have postponed their respective panchayat elections as reservation for OBCs could not be provided based on a triple test prescribed by the Supreme Court. “But the Odisha government remained silent over the issue even as the main case on OBC reservation is pending with the Supreme Court,” he added.
The BJP also demanded 27 per cent reservation for OBCs during admission to colleges and other institutions.