Opposition demands caste census in Rajya Sabha :They also sought laws to enable states to provide ceiling-excess reservation

The Supreme Court had in May ruled that the states had no right to maintain their own OBC lists and that the central list would be followed for all purposes.: File picture

Basant Kumar Mohanty   |  TT  |  New Delhi   | 12.08.21  :  The Opposition demanded a caste census and laws to enable states to provide ceiling-excess reservation during a debate in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that preceded the passing of a law to restore the right of states to maintain their own lists of Other Backward Classes.

The Supreme Court had in May ruled that the states had no right to maintain their own OBC lists and that the central list would be followed for all purposes.

The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge of the Congress, and a few other members demanded during the debate that steps be taken for reservation in the private sector so that the deprived sections continue to receive quota benefits in case of disinvestment of PSUs.

All the Opposition parties and some parties friendly to the government, such as the Biju Janata Dal and the TRS, demanded a caste census.

Social justice minister Virendra Kumar was non-committal on both demands. He said 671 castes included in the OBC lists of the states would have been deprived of their reservation rights if the central list continued to be followed.

Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the government had not released the caste data collected during the Socio-Economic Caste Census in 2011. He alleged that the government was doing away with the caste census.

The Centre told Parliament on Tuesday that the Socio-Economic Caste Census had failed to collect data “correctly” and that it was now outdated.

Kumar told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that there were a lot of complexities involved in conducting a Socio-Economic Caste Census. He said economic data from the 2011 exercise had been used to select beneficiaries for welfare schemes like the Ujjwala Yojana for free cooking gas connections and the PM Awas Yojana (housing scheme).

The minister did not comment on the demands for a law to ease the ceiling on reservation and introducing quotas in the private sector.

Singhvi said the 105th Constitutional Amendment Bill would not be beneficial as long as the 50 per cent cap on reservation, set by the Supreme Court, existed. “Now, states will maintain lists. But what will they do with the lists? So, you cannot stick to a 50 per cent figure as sacrosanct,” he said.

The BJD, TRS, Samajwadi Party, JDU, RJD and the IUML made the same demand.