BHUBANESWAR: The Opposition BJP and Congress on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, hit out at the ruling BJD for reservation of less than 27 per cent of seats for other backward classes (OBCs) in the panchayat polls and threatened to take the issue to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).
Alleging that the ruling BJD never had the intention to provide justice to the OBCs, Surath Biswal, president of the BJP OBC Morcha, said that besides approaching the NCBC, the party may also take the legal option over the issue. Criticising the State government for taking no steps to protect the interest of the OBCs, Biswal said that the ruling party leaders are making confusing statements over the issue.
Stating that the State government did not inform on what basis reservation has been done in non-scheduled districts, Biswal alleged that in areas where OBCs are in majority, the number of seats reserved for them has come down. He asked on what basis two senior ministers of the government had announced 27 percent reservation OBCs and what has happened to that announcement now. Reservation of seats for OBCs at the party level is not the issue, he said and demanded that there should be constitutional safeguards for this.
The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) also criticised the government over reservation of seats. OPCC vice-president Santosh Singh Saluja the announcement of 27 percent reservation for OBCs was only meant to confuse the people. What is the progress of the caste-based census announced by the Centre, he asked.
The ruling BJD had announced to field 27 percent candidates from OBCs in the upcoming elections, including Panchayat polls scheduled early next year on August 13. “Due to the cap on the percentage of reservation and as there is no Central law to determine it, the BJD has taken a political decision to field 27 percent SEBC candidates in Panchayat and subsequent polls in the State,” Agriculture Minister Arun Sahu had said.
A few days earlier, a delegation of BJD MPs had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at New Delhi and demanded that the Centre should bring a Bill in Parliament to lift the 50 percent ceiling on the reservation of seats.
In the reservation of seats announced by the government on Tuesday, 12.19 percent, 12.92 percent, 14.32 percent and 13.08 percent of seats have been reserved for the OBCs for Zilla Parishads, sarpanchs, panchayat samitis and ward members respectively.