Former Union Minister Srikant Jena on Saturday urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for a caste-based census in the State without any delay. As the State Assembly has been called for a sitting to elect the new Speaker on June 13, the Government should move a resolution on this issue and adopt it unanimously, he said.
In a letter to the CM, Jena said that as the former is in favour of a caste-based census, it’s high time to start it only inserting one column ‘OBC’ so that the real status of the OBC population and their socioeconomic situation would be known. In every 10 years, census takes place in the country and it includes SC and ST populations. Now, all it needs is including OBC in it.
He said as per the 1931 caste-based census, the OBC population in the country was 52% and in the State 54%.
Both Houses of the Parliament have unanimously favoured a caste-based census and the BJP supported the resolution, but it’ not known why the Union Government told the Parliament in March that there can’t be a caste-based census in the country, Jena added.
