Hyderabad: A heated exchange took place between Congress and BJP members in the assembly over the Census and BC welfare promises on Friday.
BC welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar initiated a discussion on the need to scientifically enumerate the BC/OBC population as part of the 2027 Census through a drop-down menu system, similar to the Telangana survey, instead of an open-entry format. The BJP members staged a walk out from the house claiming the govt failed to implement in the Congress BC Declaration promises. A debate took place between BJP member Payal Shankar and ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Vakiti Srihari, D Sridhar Babu and deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka. Ponnam proposed a resolution to urge the central govt to include BC and OBC caste survey in the second phase of general Census questionnaire.
He said an open-entry system could lead to discrepancies due to spelling variations, differences in caste nomenclature and sub-caste complexities.
Ponnam said the Telangana caste survey had emerged as a model for the country and provided authentic data on the BC population. The minister said the draft questionnaires for the Census did not clearly provide for enumeration of the BC/OBC population. Deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka said a caste census must be mandatorily included in the national Census if social inequalities in the country are to be eliminated.
the BJP member kept talking about the promises and their implementation as part of Congress’ Kamareddy BC Declaration While the ministers insisted that Shankar make the saffron party’s stand clear on its support to proposed resolution. He noted that Leader of Opposision in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking clarity on BC/OBC enumeration.