Maratha quota: 39 lakh houses to be surveyed in Mumbai

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday said civic staff will visit 39 lakh households in Mumbai during the ongoing survey of Maratha and other general category communities.

The survey, which began on Tuesday, was being conducted on the instructions of the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission to assess the social, economic and educational backwardness of the Maratha community.

The campaign has been launched as activist Manoj Jarange and thousands of his supporters are heading to Mumbai from January 26 to launch a new movement for reservation for the Maratha community.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Sudhakar Shinde said the BMC has included around 30,000 of its approximately 92,000 employees in the seven-day survey, which is to be completed before the end of this month.

He appealed to the people to cooperate with the enumerators as the survey has to be completed within the time limit, he also clarified that participation in the exercise is voluntary, and the data collected will remain completely secure.

“Personal data is very secure. Personal data will not be available to anyone,” Shinde said, adding that those who are already availing reservation will be asked at least four questions. For those who are not beneficiaries of any quota, the questionnaire contains about 160 questions.

Shinde said enumerators faced some problems while gaining entry into housing societies on Tuesday and a glitch in the software also caused problems, yet around 2.65 lakh houses were surveyed.

According to a BMC release, only 17,345 enumerators out of 30,000 surveyors were given user IDs and passwords to use the software on Tuesday, causing some problems.

Each employee has been given a target to survey 150 houses.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)