Trade union leader and former Congress MP and former CWC member Dr Rama Chandra Khuntia in a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik demanded to conduct caste census in Odisha immediately.
He questioned when neighbouring Bihar has conducted caste census and recently made it public, why Odisha is lagging behind.
As per the 1931 Census, OBC, BC, SEBC constitute 54 per cent of the Odisha population whereas these groups are not getting the benefit of reservation as per the population in education, employment and promotion. Even 27% reservation to BC and OBC in many States is not implemented in Odisha, he lamented.
Dr Khuntia further said that at the national level almost all political parties including former AICC president Rahul Gandhi are in favour of caste based census. So he urged CM Patnaik to conduct caste census in Odisha to give justice to more than half of the population of the State.