BC population has risenfrom 51% to 56.33%: Uttam

Hyderabad: Countering the claims of the Opposition that the latest caste survey data has shrunk the BC population, Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy affirmed that the BC and also ST population has in fact gone up, while Other Castes decreased drastically.

Speaking to media persons on Assembly premises, Uttam Kumar Reddy, who headed the cabinet sub-committee on survey maintained that the BC population percentage has increased compared to previous records.

The BC population percentage, which was recorded at 51.09 per cent during the BRS regime, has now risen to 56.33 per cent.

Similarly, ST population percentage increased from 9.8 per cent to 10.45 per cent, while the Other Castes (OCs) population percentage decreased from 21.55 per cent to 15.79 per cent. He strongly condemned the opposition leaders for falsely claiming that the BC population percentage has decreased.

“When no genuine study was conducted on the BC population, which figures are the opposition parties using to compare the existing numbers?” he asked.

The PPT presentation organised in the Assembly Committee Hall on Wednesday was attended by Speaker Gaddam Prasad Kumar, Council Chairman Gutha Sukhender Reddy, Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Chief Whip Aadi Srinivas, MP Mallu Ravi, along with MLCs and MLAs.

The PPT presentation by Planning Department Principal Secretary (Planning) Sandeep Kumar Sultania, State Nodal Officer & Hyderabad Collector Anudeep Durishetty focused on the methodology and process adopted for the survey.

The Minister rejected claims that similar surveys had been conducted earlier, pointing out that the Intensive Household Survey (IHS) 2014 was never made public by the previous BRS government and that even the KCR government did not endorse it as official data.