Mumbai, May 5 (PTI) Empirical data on the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community in Maharashtra is being collected by a dedicated commission and the task will be completed within one-and-a-half months, state minister Chhagan Bhujbal said on Thursday.
Compiling empirical data of the OBC population is one of the Supreme Court-mandated ‘triple test’ to decide about restoring the political quota of the community.
Talking to reporters after a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the issue of OBC quota and the Supreme Court’s direction that the local body election schedule be declared within two weeks, Bhujbal, a prominent OBC leader in the state, said the State Election Commission (SEC) will take a call on the election schedule.
State OBC commission headed by Jayant Kumar Banthia, a former chief secretary of the state, is working on completing the task of collecting the empirical data in time, the Food and Civil Supplies Minister said, adding that the task will be completed in one-and-a-half months.
The commission was set up to collect empirical data on OBCs after the OBC quota in local body elections was struck down. The state had filed a review petition, which was also quashed by the apex court.
The Supreme Court had on Wednesday directed that the election schedule for the civic polls in Maharashtra be announced in two weeks, even as the state government had earlier said that polls would be held after the political quota for the OBCs was approved.
This is being seen as a setback to the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, which had resolved to keep the local body polls pending till the OBC quota was restored.
Elections to 23 municipal corporations, over 25 zilla parishads and panchayat samitis and gram panchayats in their jurisdiction are due.
In the last budget session of the state legislature, the government had enacted a law which says the election schedule for local and civic bodies will be decided by the SEC in consultation with the government. The amendments have also proposed cancellation of the delimitation prcess and fixing of wards by the SEC.
Bhujbal said the law framed in Maharashtra on the lines of the one in Madhya Pradesh has been challenged in the court by a BJP supporter. PTI MR NP NP
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Source: The Print
