Telangana Legislative Assembly witnessed a marathon debate on the resolution on caste survey introduced by the State Government with opposition members raising several questions on the modalities that would be adopted by the Government. Supporting the Government’s move to conduct caste survey, members of the BRS, AIMIM, BJP and the CPI raised questions relating to the assurance given by the Congress on passage of a Bill paving the way for the conduct of survey, the agency that will conduct it, time frame by which the survey would be completed, proposed budget for the entire exercise and legal backing.
BRS working president and MLA K.T. Rama Rao recalled that similar exercise taken up in Bihar encountered legal hurdles and came to a grinding halt. The exercise would be fruitful only if it had legal backing and the Government should accordingly enact a legislation in this direction. The Government could seek judicial sanctity by constituting a committee headed by a High Court judge.
BRS member Gangula Kamalakar asked the Government about the 42% quota it assured to BCs in local body elections, Rs. One lakh crore budgetary allocation for BC welfare in five years and the implementation of the BC sub plan. He wanted the Government to take steps to give legal sanctity to the entire process by passing a Bill in the House so that the proposed caste census reached its logical end.
MIM member Akbaruddin Owaisi questioned as to why the Government came up with a resolution and not a Bill that would give statutory backing to the entire process. He wanted the Government to table the details of similar household survey conducted by the previous BRS Government and opined that the Government should have conducted an all party meeting to take all parties into confidence before introducing the resolution in the assembly.
He suggested that the Government enact a legislation and constitute a commission of enquiry to study the status of BCs giving statutory backing for the entire exercise. “There is no clarity on which agency will be entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the survey. Are Muslims included in it? The Government should bring a legislation so that doubts are clarified and the census work did not face any hurdles,” he said.
BJP’s Payal Shankar lamented that the political parties remembered backward classes only at the time of elections and wanted the Government to call for an all party meeting to explain the modalities. The Government should appoint a committee to oversee the conduct of the census so that legal problems could be avoided.
