THE OBC Kranti Dal and OBC Jan Morcha, recently submitted a memorandum to the District Collector demanding that arrangements be made for separate counting of Other Backward Classes (OBC) community in the ongoing census. The memorandum stated that the questionnaire in the census notification published by the Central Government clearly mentions Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). However, no separate registration arrangement has been made for the OBC community. Therefore, the exact population of the OBC community in the country as well as their social, educational and economic status will not be available. This has created a sense of confusion and discontent in the OBC community.

 

The office bearers of the organisation demanded that the Central Government make necessary amendments in the census questionnaire and include a separate category for OBCs, and also conduct a caste-wise census and collect accurate information about all social groups. Otherwise, they expressed that there is a possibility of injustice being done to the OBC community. On this occasion, Prof. Dr Ramesh Pishe, Dr Krishna Belle, Baba Ashtankar, Narendra Kumar Divate, Balanand Tapre, Harish Dandekar, Anil Sakharkar, Krishna Ghuguskar, Sanjay Sontakke, Ashok Kakade, Kishore Naukrkar, Shrirang Madankar, Harshal Satphale, Siddharth Ramteke and other office bearers and activists were present. On behalf of OBC Kranti Dal and OBC Janmorcha, the Government should immediately take a decision on the separate census of the OBC community, otherwise they would take out a strong protest.