BC Commission writes to Modi on Women’s Reservation Bill

Telangana BC Commission Chairman G Niranjan urged the Prime Minister to ensure fair representation for BCs and BC women in the Women’s Reservation Bill and census process. He also sought inclusion of pending BC castes in the Central OBC list.

Hyderabad: The Telangana State BC Commission Chairman G Niranjan urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure that no injustice is done to BCs and BC women through the Women’s Reservation Bill and the methods being followed in the population census across the country.

Women’s reservation is a historic step forward. While reservation opportunities are being provided to SC and ST women, not extending reservation to BC women, who constitute a major portion of the population, and neglecting them is a matter of concern, he said in a letter to the Prime Minister.

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Collecting data on SC and ST populations while ignoring OBCs in the first phase of the census (house listing questionnaire) raises doubts about the government’s intent. Therefore, caste enumeration of BCs should be conducted along with SCs and STs from the very first phase of the census, he said.

In the second phase, enumeration of the various castes within BCs should be carried out, he urged. In Telangana State, there are 130 BC castes in the State list, whereas only 90 castes are included in the Central OBC list. The remaining 40 castes are not included in the Central list, due to which people belonging to those castes are unable to avail reservations in Central government education and employment opportunities, he pointed out.

Therefore, before the commencement of the 2027 census, an amendment should be brought in Parliament to include these 40 castes in the Central OBC list. If these 40 castes are not enumerated during the census, there is a risk of the BC population of Telangana being presented as lower, he stressed.

In this regard, he also wrote separate letters to Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and Leaders of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi respectively.