Hyderabad, Feb 17: Muslim community will also be covered under the comprehensive door-to-door household caste survey planned by the Telangana government with a special focus on the backward classes.
The State Legislative Assembly on Friday passed a resolution for conducting the caste survey aimed at assessing social, economic, educational, employment, political and caste status of the people.
“The House resolves to take up comprehensive door-to-door household survey (socio, economic, educational, employment, political and caste survey) of entire Telangana so as to plan and implement various socio, economic, educational, employment and political opportunities for the amelioration of socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and SCs and STs,” reads the resolution tabled by backward classes welfare minister Ponnam Prabhakar.
The resolution was passed after a marathon debate during which the opposition parties suggested that a Bill be passed instead of a resolution.
During the debate, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi wanted to know if Muslims will also be covered by the caste survey. He wanted to know why Muslims have not been mentioned in the resolution along with BCs, SCs and STs.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka assured that the survey will also cover Muslims. He said the survey would also assess backwardness of the Muslim community. “Not just Muslims, the survey will assess social, educational, economic and political status of all the people living in the state,” he said.
The Congress government also assured the Assembly that the government will also consult legal experts, intellectuals and leaders of various communities and political parties to prepare modalities for conducting the comprehensive survey.
During the Assembly elections, the Congress party had promised to conduct a caste census. It was also included in the party’s manifesto. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said the resolution is the first step to fulfil the promise. “The Congress party believes that all sections of people should get opportunities in social, economic, educational and political fields in proportion to their population,” he said.
The Chief Minister recalled that when UPA was in power at the Centre, Rajinder Sachar Committee was constituted to assess the social, educational, economic and political status of Muslims and based on this report the then Congress government in combined Andhra Pradesh had provided four percent reservation to Muslims on the basis of their backwardness.
He said the government decided to conduct the survey for implementation of schemes for empowering the backward classes in a scientific manner. The survey will also help in ensuring availability of adequate funds and opportunities to backward classes, who constitute 50 percent of the population.
He recalled that the BRS previous government had conducted a comprehensive household survey but the details of the survey were not made public. He alleged that only one family had access to the data and remarked that it was perhaps using only for elections.
BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao recalled that similar exercise taken up in Bihar encountered legal hurdles. He suggested that the government enact a legislation for caste survey. He also mooted the idea of seeking judicial sanctity by constituting a committee headed by a High Court judge.
