Caste survey report tabled in Telangana Assembly

Hyderabad: The one-day special session of the state legislature on Tuesday witnessed a war of words between the opposition and treasury benches in the state Assembly on the socioeconomic survey report that was tabled in the House.
Telangana Assembly also adopted a resolution urging the Centre to conduct such a door to door caste survey across the country.

The Congress government in Telangana has convened a special session of the state legislature on Tuesday and presented the socio-economic caste survey that was held in the state recently in the Assembly. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy called the survey historic and said that BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao, his son KT Rama Rao, and BJP MP DK Aruna didn't participate in the survey.

KTR has accused the Congress government of deceiving Backward Classes (BC) by failing to introduce a bill for 42% reservations, as promised in the Kamareddy BC Declaration meeting.

“No official information regarding the weaker sections is available in the country to date. It becomes difficult to implement the BC quota. After 1931, enumeration of the weaker sections has not been conducted in India. The national census report does not include the details of the weaker sections. During the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promised to conduct the caste census in the Telangana state. Soon after Congress came to power, the People's Government fulfilled the promise by adopting a resolution to conduct a caste census in the Assembly,” said Revanth Reddy, who had participated in the discussion.

The official process for the caste census has been completed in record time, and the report is presented in the Assembly today. Enumerators collected details in every village and Tanda meticulously. 150 houses have been identified as a unit, and the enumerators are assigned to collect the details, he explained.

Revanth Reddy also said that 76,000 data entry operators worked hard for 36 days to complete the data, and the government spent Rs 160 crore preparing the report by adopting strict measures. The government tabled the caste survey report in the assembly after the state Cabinet gave its nod.

“Took the decision to give due respect to the BCs who constituted 56 percent in the Telangana State. Congratulating all those who worked hard to prepare the caste census report, which became a role model for the country,” added Revanth Reddy.

However, KTR alleged that the government merely made an announcement and avoided taking real legislative action. "A mere statement cannot be called historic. We expected the government to bring a legally binding bill ensuring 42% reservations for BCs. Instead, they issued a mere statement and are calling it historic. BCs will never accept this deception," said KTR.

The BRS leader mentioned that BC communities across the state had anticipated that the Congress government would introduce a bill in the special legislative session to implement 42% reservations in local body elections. However, he said that the government had only issued a statement without taking concrete steps.

Referring to past incidents, KTR recalled that when the Comprehensive Household Survey was conducted under the BRS regime, Revanth Reddy publicly urged people not to provide their details. KTR questioned, "How can the present government refuse to recognise the data collected in an open and transparent survey?" He also pointed out that the Samagra Kutumba Survey was conducted by the previous government, and it has the authentic numbers of the social categories. KTR further explained that according to the Samagra Kutumba Survey, a total of 1.03 crore families and 3.68 crore people participated in the data collection. The survey identified that BCs make up 51% of the population, which increases to 61% when BC Muslims are included.

KTR criticised the government for manipulating statistics, questioning how the BC population dropped from 51% to 46% in the present survey. He further alleged that a Congress MLC had even called for the burning of the current official survey report, raising concerns over the transparency of the data presented by the ruling party.