Oppn presses for caste census in Maharashtra, cites Bihar case

Patil was participating in the discussion on the state budget presented by state’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, last week. “ If that is done, we can have funds in proportion to the actual number of people of a particular caste. Otherwise, how are you going to distribute funds? Look at Bihar, where Nitish Kumar has already undertaken the exercise. It was understood during Covid-19 that the census was not possible, but now everything is open,” he said.

Patil also took a dig at the state government pointing out that the budget did not mention a single word on the Maratha community. “I don’t know why,” Patil said.

Fadnavis, in the Budget, had announced setting up of development corporations for Lingayat, Gurav, Ramoshi and Vadar communities under Maharashtra State Other Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation with an authorised share capital of Rs 50 crore each.

The Opposition had raised the issue in the press conference prior to the budget session with Leader of Opposition Ajit Pawar demanding the same.

“The Maha Vikas Aghadi government had unanimously passed the resolution to conduct OBC census in the state to ascertain its exact population. The exercise was never carried out by the Centre, but a state like Bihar led by Nitish Kumar has undertaken it. We will be demanding for the same exercise to be carried out here as well,” Pawar had then said.