In a bid to knit its torn grounds in one of the strong vote banks in the State, the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Wing of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee (JPCC) today organised a Jan Chetna Sammelan on Jharkhand Assembly premises. JPCC President Sukhdev Bhagat said during first Sammelan after election of Abhilash Sahu as Chairman of OBC Wing that the grand old party would intensify the fight with all its might and renewed energy for the rights of OBCs in State and across the country.
The Sammelan, which was organised also to showcase hold of Sahu on the class he represented saw considerable presence of the fraternity from Ranchi and other districts of the State. In presence of almost all the notable figures representing the party and OBC, Sahu said that the class which accounted for over 52 per cent in total population of the country in 1980 and came down to 41 percent in 2006 according to National Sample Survey was cleverly restricted to merely 6-8 per cent out of 27 per cent reservation given to it through Constitution of India.
“It is just ironical that none of the departments in the State appears interested to provide OBCs their legitimate rights as far as their representations in government jobs in true numbers is concerned. Data from education sector pose serious threat to the community which has been suffering from immense discrimination at every level in terms of quality of education, number of student enrolments and promotion to the teachers, and funds for OBCs” said Sahu where leader of Opposition of Congress in Assembly Alamgir Alam, JPCC Women Wing President Abha Sinha and other leaders were also present.
Sukhdev Bhagat said during the Sammelan, which was also organised to unite OBC as a vote bank whose decades-long dedication to the party shifted to BJP for a couple of reasons resulting in Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) attaining majority strength in present Jharkhand Assembly, that the exploitation of OBC was at its worst during Chief Minister Raghubar Das led government in State and Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government at Centre.
“RTI information obtained during 2015 suggests that merely 12 per cent of the OBCs are taking benefits of reservation. This is not acceptable. We demand full 27 percent reservation for OBCs in all the departments of the State. We also demand compulsory enforcement of OBC reservations in private sector, political parties and elections,” said Bhagat.
Alam asked the fraternity to unite once again in support of the party as usual and to fight for their rights in the State, where government machinery remained completely failed to protect interests of the community. “We have crossed many bridges together in the past. We will have to take our battle forward under leadership of Rahul Gandhi (Congress Vice President), who has always remained vocal to speak in favour of reservations,” said Alam.
