OSCBC starts ops as politics over backward classes heats up
BHUBANESWAR: Justice (retired) Raghunath Biswal on Saturday took charge as chairman of the Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes (OSCBC) along with three other members. The move is seen as a precursor to the backward classes survey which the state government has been advocating for a while.
The commission will formally start functioning from a temporary office almost a year after it was announced. The state government had on February 12 last year announced the constitution of the OSCBC in accordance with the provisions of the Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993.
The state assembly in February had also passed a resolution to conduct a survey of the backward classes by the OSCBC as the last caste-based census was done way back in 1931. “The key function of the commission will be to include eligible castes left out from the backward list and to exclude those who have been found to have developed socially and economically over the years. We will prepare a database of backward class population in the state,” Biswal said. On providing quota to backward classes, Biswal said it can only be decided after detailed examination of various aspects.
Functioning of the OSCBC assumes significance as it comes in the wake of a proposal passed during a recent BJD meeting to conduct the survey of backward classes in the state while Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan also wrote a letter to chief minister Naveen Patnaik seeking reservation for other backward classes (OBCs) in public recruitment and educational institutions and to socially and educationally backward classes (SEBCs) in educational institutions.
The politics over reservation of backward classes is seen as an attempt to rally the community, whose number is perceived to be half of the state’s population. Though there has been no official enumeration in the recent past, percentage of backward class population is thought to be around 54% of the population. There are around 209 communities identified as backward classes in the state.
State SC/ST development and backward classes welfare minister Jagannath Sarka, who was present when the commission chairman took charge, said the state government would act upon the suggestions made by the OSCBC.
Pradhan on Saturday also accused the state government of not having political will to provide quota to backward classes in the state.
“Majority of the population in the state belongs to OBC and SEBC sections. These sections of the society are getting deprived of their rights in public recruitment and education as a result of which they could not develop socially and educationally,” Pradhan said.