PUNE: Over 5.77 lakh houses out of the approximately 14.30 lakh to be covered under civic limits have been left out of the survey for Maratha reservation, during the recent special drive carried out under the directions of the Maharashtra state backward classes commission.
PMC officials said these nearly 6 lakh houses were either locked when the emunerators arrived, or their residents refused to participate in the assessment. “The survey was done using special software. The data got submitted automatically as it was real-time data collection and submission,” said Chetna Kerure, survey coordinator for PMC.
As per official data, the civic administration collected information from residents of 8.51 lakh households through their ward offices. Of the 5.77 lakh houses left out, residents of 1.84 lakh homes did not allow enumerators to record their data, and 3.93 lakh houses were found shut.
PMC officials said that although the data of the property tax department showed around 13.31 lakh properties, the enumerators visited almost 14.30 lakh homes. Nearly 1 lakh houses are not in the tax department’s records as they are new or include slum dwellings.
The Maratha reservation survey, carried out in rural and urban areas of Maharashtra, started on Jan 23 and concluded on Feb 2. Over 15,000 officials from the PMC, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), district administration and other local self-governing bodies were deployed for the exercise in the district. Officials had to survey around 28 lakh households in the district by the end of Jan.
According to the data, PMC deployed 3,100 staff members for the survey, while PCMC involved 2,100 staffers. The district administration roped in 8,000 employees. Staff from the health, property tax, building permissions, water supply and other departments took part as enumerators. The task is meant to help push the state’s case for a Maratha quota in the SC.
The survey has tried to discover social, economic and educational backwardness factors in the community by posing 150 questions. According to the state govt, the data also gathers significance ahead of a special session that the state government is planning to convene to declare reservation for the Maratha community. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, in the winter session held in Dec 2023 in Nagpur, had said that the government would grant reservation to the Maratha community at a special session of the state legislature to be convened in Feb.
