Hyderabad: Telangana Rakshana Sena president Kalvakuntla Kavitha has demanded that the state govt convene special sessions of the assembly and legislative council to pass resolutions seeking separate enumeration of OBC castes and Adivasi religions in the forthcoming Census.In an open letter to chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Sunday, she urged the govt to convene the special sessions immediately, ahead of the house-to-house Census exercise scheduled to begin in Dec.Kavitha said OBCs had not received benefits proportionate to their population even 75 years after Independence, primarily because there were no legally established figures on their population across the country. She said political parties should recognise the concerns of OBC communities and extend support to their demand.She pointed out that although a provision had been made to record caste during the Census, there was no separate column to identify OBC communities. As a result, they could be placed under the category of other castes, she said. She demanded that OBCs be enumerated separately, on the lines of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.She suggested that the state legislature pass a resolution seeking a separate OBC caste column and forward it to the Centre.Kavitha also demanded that the religion of Adivasis be recorded separately in the Census, citing their distinct cultural practices and way of life. She said Adivasis had been identified separately in earlier Census exercises, but the provision was not available in the present exercise, causing concern among tribal communities.Describing Adivasis as the country’s indigenous people, she said their way of life was closely linked to nature and forests, which they worshipped as their deities. She urged the state legislature to pass a separate resolution seeking distinct recording of Adivasi religion and send it to the Centre.
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