Mumbai: The NCP (Sharad Pawar) on Saturday pushed for a caste-based census in Maharashtra similar to the one conducted in Bihar.
The NCP has been asking for a caste census for a long time and if the state government does not make an announcement in this regard within two weeks, the party will raise the issue in the winter session of the state legislature, Raj Rajapurkar, the OBC cell chief of the party, said in Mumbai.
The NCP had raised this demand when it was part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government as well, he said. “Other parties have been talking about it only now. We want the state government to take steps in the direction of a caste census. In Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did the caste census and immediately implemented quotas accordingly. Why can’t the same thing be done in Maharashtra?” Rajapurkar asked.
'We will meet Governor Ramesh Bais if...': Rajapurkar
“If the government does not soon decide, we will meet Governor Ramesh Bais with a charter of demands. If that too doesn’t produce any results, we will hit the streets and stage protests, sit on hunger strike and use every democratic tactic to push for our demands,” Rajapurkar added.
Rajapurkar also tried to junk the statement of Prof Namdeo Jadhav about NCP president Sharad Pawar. Jadhav, who claims to be a direct descendent in Jijabi's maternal family. had accused Pawar of never supporting the cause of Maratha reservation. "One needs to see Jadhav is talking on whose behalf. His statements can cause reift in the society," Rajapurkar said, adding that he needs to be arrested.
Rajapurkar also stated that it was Pawar who implemented the Mandal commission recommendations because they were based on scientifically conducted surveys and he believed that measures were needed to do away with the social backwardness.
