Union Minister Athawale wants 2021 census to be caste-based

Republican Party of India (A) chief Ramdas Athawale on Monday launched his party's Tripura unit and said that the outfit aims at contesting in 2023 assembly elections if its ally at the Centre, the BJP, agrees to share 3-4 seats with it. The Union Minister for social justice and empowerment also said his party will work for the people from various sections of the society, including scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward castes (OBCs) in the state.

Agartala: Union Minister of state for social justice and president of Republican Party of India (A) Ramdas Athawale on Monday placed a demand that the 2021 census should be on caste basis. The central Minister who has arrived in the state on Monday argued that the population of SC, ST and OBC were being noted and came into count in every census but the people who belonged to other castes did not get recorded separately.

"24 percent of the population of Tripura comes from OBC background and they get the benefit of 27 percent reservation accorded to the people coming from this category. But, there are certain other communities who are demanding reservation. My demand is that the 2021 census should be caste-based so that the population of other classes can be recorded officially apart from the SC, ST and other backward classes", said Athwale.

Replying to a question regarding the West Bengal elections, the Minister said, "these elections will be in the favour of BJP. Mamta Banerjee will also fight the elections but the results will favour the BJP. The BJP leadership of West Bengal under Dilip Ghosh will form the government. The people of West Bengal have given enough time to Mamta Banerjee and now the people have set their mentality to offer a chance to the PM Narendra Modi led BJP". Explaining his party's prospects, he said, his party is working in some of the districts of West Bengal and it will help the BJP in forming the government.

Athwale also formed Tripura state Committee of RPI(A) making Satyajit Das the chief of the state unit. He said, his party will help Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb and his team in getting elected for another term in the coming elections and also hoped that his party might get a share of three to four seats in the next assembly elections slated to be held in the year 2023.

The central Minister also lauded the law and order of Tripura and Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb for negligible reports of atrocities on SC, ST community people. According to a datasheet, from 2014 to 2020 only 6 reports of atrocities have been reported which he felt was a sign of social harmony.

To a question regarding the sum of money earmarked for Tripura from his ministry, the Minister said, he does not have the exact figure but all the ministries release the money in time for the North-Eastern states but due to Corona the expenditure may have decreased for this particular year, he added.

The minister also gave a detailed overview of the government schemes implemented in Tripura and said that the young Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb had done remarkably well.

He had also maintained that this government was keen to develop the living standards of SCs, OBCs, Divangyas, Orphans and other such classes who are facing backwardness. Hailing the new scheme of scholarships, he said, "Rs 35,500 crore will be given to all the states for these pre-metric and post-metric scholarships and rest of the Rs 24,000 crore will have to be given from the part of state government in this Rs 59,000 crore scheme that will benefit not less than 4 crore students of the country".