Govt sets up panel headed by ex-judge for backward classes

Bhubaneswar: The state government on Wednesday constituted a backward classes commission which will be headed by a retired judge of the Orissa high court. The move comes barely a month after the state cabinet passed a resolution to move the Centre for a socio-economic caste enumeration along with the 2021 general census.
On January 13, chief secretary Asit Tripathy had requested Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba to consider the proposal for a caste-based census, on which the Centre is yet to take a call. Former Orissa HC judge, Justice Raghunath Biswal, would head the commission while academicians Navneeta Rath (professor in sociology), Mitali Chinara (professor in economics) and Prasanna Kumar Patra (professor in anthropology) will be the members of the commission. Serving bureaucrat VV Yadav will be the member secretary of the panel, said an official statement.
The five-member commission has been constituted in accordance with the provisions under the Odisha State Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993, a law that was formulated when Naveen Patnaik’s father Biju Patnaik was the chief minister of the state.
The 1993 law empowers the commission to examine requests of inclusion of any class of citizen in the backward class list. It can also hear complains of over inclusion and under inclusion into the list.
The commission has the power to advice the state government on inclusion or exclusion of any communities in the backward classes list. The advice of the commission shall ordinarily be binding upon the state government.
The state government’s move assumes significance as it has been facing flak for not constituting the backward commission. Though there has been no official census to enumerate the number of socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC), they account for around 54 per cent of the state’s population, which forms an important segment for any political party. There are around 209 communities identified as SEBCs in Odisha.
Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who had earlier criticized the state government move for a caste-based census, said the commission for backward classes has become a reality.