"Will get to know population of tribals, SCs, OBCs...": Ajit Pawar favours caste census

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 15 (ANI): Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar asserted that the caste census should be conducted to get the exact number of population of tribal, SCs, OBCs, minorities etc which will ultimately assist the Centre in devising policies.
Congress and some other opposition parties have been demanding a caste census. JD-U. which is part of the NDA, has also favoured it
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Ajit Pawar said, "I think caste census should be conducted for once. It should be conducted for once along with the general census because we will get to know the exact number of population of tribal, SCs, OBCs, minorities and other sections of society. It should be conducted because every section demands policies (reservation) for themselves, so, getting the exact figure can also help the government while making policies."
Emphasising the issues of farmers in Maharashtra, Deputy CM Pawar asserted that the government is working towards the welfare of farmers through various reforms such as giving loans at zero per cent interest rate, waiving farmers' old electricity bills and providing them free electricity.
Listing out the three times when farmers' loans were waived off by the governments, Ajit Pawar said, "Till now, around 3 times farmers' loans were waived. For the first time, it was on the national level during former PM Manmohan Singh Ji's tenure when P Chidambaram was finance minister and Sharad Pawar was agriculture minister. For the second time, in the state, when Devendra Fadnavis was chief minister, he waived off the farmer loans and for the third time when Uddhav Thackeray was CM, then I was the finance minister and we waived off the farmers' loan."
"Now, according to the state government's policy, we have started giving loans to farmers at zero per cent interest rate, for which 50 per cent Central government pays and 50 per cent state government, which they need to repay after 1 year. Keeping in mind the same thing, we brought a policy to waive off their electricity bills," he added.
Ajit Pawar further said, "Before presenting the budget, I interacted with lots of people, especially from the rural society where they talked about their problems. There were farmers too. One thing that was in my mind was to waive the electricity bill of farmers, as some farmers, when unable to pay the bill, they try to commit suicide."
Meanwhile, Pawar also highlighted the government's constant efforts to bring water to the drought-affected areas of the state, whether Vidarbha or Marathwada.
Speaking on the irrigation water management in the drought-affected areas of the state, especially Vidarbha and Marathwada, Pawar said, "We have planned in the long term for areas which have suffered from famine in past years. We have brought water there through various plans. Our different lift irrigation schemes are on the way and now free electricity will help farmers of this region more. We have started several lift irrigation schemes and made barrages. Projects like the Nalganga-Wainganga River linking and Nar Par Girnar River linking will also help such areas. We have started linking various rivers and bringing water through tunnels. This is a long-term project, so, it takes time to show results."
Furthermore, Pawar highlighted the reasons behind flooding of cities like Pune and Mumbai and said that Pune due to its natural terrain and heavy rains faced such situations.
Speaking on the city infrastructure issues, Pawar said, "Everybody knows the history of Pune city. The Pune city is like a valley which is surrounded by several dams on the upper side of the hills. What happened this time is, that Pune city along with the upper parts (where dams are located) witnessed heavy rains and around 35, 000 cusecs of water were released from the dam, which led to the flooding. Similarly, in Mumbai which is a group of 7 islands, which faces ocean tides every 6 hours and there are concrete roads everywhere, so the situation is that we can't do anything on it. On the second day of flooding, the water level itself goes down in Mumbai. We have tried everything, even consulted the best IAS officers but can't do anything on it, as it is a natural problem."
Earlier in July, Maharashtra faced continuous rainfall which led to the flooding of several cities. Meanwhile, earlier, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray claimed that the reason behind flash floods in Pune city is the riverfront development project. (ANI)