Urban body polls were held in the State in March-April this year after a delay of more than two years. But, this time too, there was no reservation of seats for OBCs.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) brought forth the issue of OBC candidature once again on Thursday following the release of the final list of candidates who will contest the three tier Panchayat polls in Odisha.
OBC Reservation Row: Protesting BJP Workers Storm Into District Collector’s Office
Thousands of members belonging to the OBC Front blocked a road too disrupting vehicular traffic for quite some time before submitting a memorandum to the Additional Collector.
The members of the outfit- Paschim Odisha Adivasi Kalyan Sangha- took out the rally and held a Maha Meli (meeting) in front of the office of the district Collector. They alleged that their community has been sidelined in the reservation of seats for candidates in the forthcoming elections.
The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to intensify its campaign and attack on the ruling BJD on the OBC reservation issue.
The party also raised questions on the effectiveness of the State OBC Commission and termed it ‘a failure’ which could not put the interests of the OBCs in the front.
Party's organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das moved the resolution which was unanimously supported and subsequently approved by party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
As per the list released by the SEC, no seat has been reserved for backward class in 14 districts of the State. Similarly, there is only one seat reserved for the backward class in Boudh district while two seats are reserved for the category in Subarnapur district.
There are 104 seats reserved for Backward Class Citizens (BCC) and Backward Class Citizens Women (BCCW) in the Zilla Parishad polls.
The Odisha Opposition on Sunday targeted the State government over the Panchayat Reservation Law passed recently in the last Assembly Monsoon session, alleging the law as faulty
Reports collated from various places in Bhadrak, Bargarh, and from Malkangiri to Mayurbhanj, voices of dissent against neglect to OBCs reservations in the draft list for Zilla Parishad posts have warmed the State politics.
The plea contended that petitioners and similarly affected candidates were shocked to note the reservation in 15 per cent UG and 50 per cent PG All India Quota seats (MBBS/BDS and MD/MS/MDS), which comes into effect from the current academic session 2021-22.
The Cabinet has also reportedly given its approval to the Odisha Municipal Act. Once it comes into effect, reservations will be done as the population of the SCs, STs and backward classes.
BJP's OBC Morcha chief Surath Biswal said that the party is not silent on the matter, but rather hitting out at the ruling-BJD, Biswal stressed that it was only after the intervention of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan that an OBC commission was set up in the State.
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