DMK Rajya Sabha member P. Wilson has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to take steps to introduce constitutional amendments to compulsorily grant OBC reservations in local bodies elections on the basis of empirical data, and move the census from the Union List to the Concurrent List, providing both the Union and State governments power to conduct census.
Mr. Wilson said the legal obstacle to States granting OBC reservation in local bodies elections was the want of empirical data, which has been made a prerequisite by the judiciary. As per judicial pronouncements, States have to appoint a dedicated commission to gather information for ascertaining political backwardness of the Backward Classes to specify the proportion of the reservation required local bodies-wise, he said. For this, it is vital to have access to the caste census data, relating to OBCs.
Pointing out that there was a constitutional deadlock in granting reservation to OBC’s in local bodies, he said the Union government had not yet published, ‘for unknown reasons’, the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) that was prepared with the assistance of States and Union Territories in March 2011. The Union Cabinet had spent ₹4,893.60 crore for the exercise.
