Nagpur: Sakal OBC Mahamorcha’s Vidarbha Mandal Yatra began from Bhandara on Monday, with Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar leading the opening day, saying he was present in his capacity as a member of the OBC community.“Starting today, the Mandal Yatra begins from Bhandara and will travel through 11 districts of Vidarbha, with the main demand of implementing all recommendations of the Mandal Commission and getting justice for OBCs and farmers in this state and the country,” Wadettiwar said. “Central govt should conduct a caste-based census of OBCs, like it does for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Central govt should also create a separate ministry for OBCs.”Wadettiwar said the community’s institutions were starved of funds compared to their share of the population. “Despite large number of OBCs, we get the same amount of funds as is given to all the other boards. According to our population, we should get at least Rs 1,000 crore for Mahajyoti,” he said, referring to the state’s OBC welfare corporation. He also demanded a budget for a Mahatma Jyotiba Phule OBC Bhavan in every district, and said a backlog of one lakh OBC posts should be filled immediately.He also objected to the state’s “open to open” policy for merit-based seats. This policy primarily dictates candidates from reserved categories who use any govt relaxations can only compete for reserved category seats and are barred from shifting to open category merit seats. “If a student has 125 marks, he should come in the open category regardless of caste. But even if our OBC children have 125 marks, they are kept in the category, and a child with 90 marks is selected in open category,” Wadettiwar said.The yatra, organised for the fifth year running by the Sakal OBC Mahamorcha, will pass through villages across Vidarbha before concluding in Chandrapur.
