Suvendu Adhikari questions OBC survey, cites 'fictitious communities'

Kolkata: The Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday questioned the fresh survey being conducted by the state government to identify the Other Backward Classes (OBCs), alleging that "completely make-believe, fictitious and imaginary' communities have been listed.

The West Bengal government has begun a fresh survey to update its Other Backward Classes (OBC) list, following a promise made to the Supreme Court on March 18. This move comes after the state government challenged a Calcutta High Court order that scrapped all OBC certificates issued in West Bengal since 2010. The state government promised the apex court to complete the process of a fresh survey within the next three months.

However, the LoP issued a statement on Wednesday morning claiming that the fresh survey is being conducted by the state government in the same manner on grounds of which the Calcutta High Court had earlier scrapped all OBC certificates issued in the state since 2010.

According to him, while the apex court asked the state government to explain how it selected the 77 communities in the state's list for OBC reservations, the reality is that the state government is as of now conducting a fresh survey with the intention of diverting resources from the Hindu OBCs, without scientific data and by creating made-up communities with no social substantiality and existence.

“This is a clear attempt at appeasement under the guise of welfare. The TMC government is unethically trying to justify its issuance of flawed OBC certificates, in wholesale, to its vote bank by carrying out another erroneous & misleading survey,” the LoP claimed in the statement.

To support his claims, he shared forms from a recent survey conducted in the Nandigram Assembly constituency, located in the East Midnapore district. Notably, this constituency is also the Leader of Opposition's (LoP) home turf, where he was elected as a representative.

He claimed that in the form of the fresh survey, some “community names” were mentioned which “were never ever heard before as existing communities and are completely make-believe, fictitious and imaginary”.

Till the time the report was filed, there was no counter-reaction to the statement from anyone from the state government or Trinamool Congress.

(inputs from IANS)