Team News Riveting
Raipur, August 29
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested to get the national census conducted while setting a separate code for other backward classes.
He also urged the Prime Minister to shift the headquarters of NMDC from Hyderabad to Jagdalpur.
Baghel stated in the letter that necessary initiatives and decisions should be taken at the earliest on this important and sensitive subject matter i.e. reservation of OBCs. “In April 2023, I had requested for the benefit of 27 percent reservation for other backward classes of Chhattisgarh state and to include this subject in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution. I am sure you will agree that it is necessary to provide reservation to the large population of OBCs, who have been deprived of socio-political rights for centuries,” Baghel said.
The decision is necessary to keep up the spirit of equality and social justice provided by the constitution, he added in the letter. Baghel said that the bill to implement 32, 13, 27 and 4 per cent reservation for the people of Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes and EWS respectively was passed unanimously by the state assembly in December 2022. Unfortunately, that bill is still pending for approval in Raj Bhawan.
The Chief Minister said denying the constitutional rights to the major part of population would inevitably upset them. It is beyond comprehension that despite all the efforts of the state government, people belonging to other backward classes are not being provided the benefit of 27 percent reservation, he added.
