MumbaiSenior NCP leader and Maharashtra government minister Chhagan Bhujbal on Wednesday said the Supreme Court’s order on Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation is a setback for the state government and it has to save the community’s reservation. Every effort should be made for this.
State Congress President Nana Patole also said that the state government should immediately collect data related to OBCs and ensure that their political reservation is maintained. Both the NCP and the Congress are part of the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government.
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The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by the Maharashtra government asking the Center and other authorities to disclose the estimated figures of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, caste Instructions were sought. The top court, while dismissing the petition, said that the state is free to adopt other remedies available under the law.
The Center had told the court that the SECC 2011 figures were “absolutely unreliable” as it found several flaws. The Center also told the apex court that SECC 2011 OBC data is “no” and was not made public as it was found to be “false” and “misleading”.
Speaking to reporters here, Bhujbal said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government sought postponement of the local body elections, but the central government opposed the plea. “The Center told the apex court that the empirical data for the OBC census was not collected and cannot be given to the states. The next hearing of the matter will be held in January, during which the court will take information about the data collected by the Backward Classes Commission. The state government should ensure that the political reservation of OBCs is maintained.”
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“If there was no empirical data, what did Devendra Fadnavis ask from the Center when he was chief minister,” the NCP leader asked. He said that he would participate in all the protests in the state aimed at protecting the OBC reservation. Patole also said that the state government should immediately take up the data collection of OBCs and ensure that political reservations are maintained. Taking a jibe at the BJP, Patole said that the central government has deliberately not shared the empirical data with the state.
The Congress leader asked, “If the empirical data with the Center was faulty, why did former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and then Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde, during their tenure, write to the Center demanding sharing of the data with the state government? ” Patole also accused the central government of not being in favor of the OBC census.
On a separate petition by the Maharashtra government, the Supreme Court directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to notify as general category 27 per cent seats in local bodies, which were reserved for the OBC category, to carry forward the election process. .