AP high court seeks affidavit on BC survey

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh high court on Thursday directed the state govt to file an affidavit with details of the survey being conducted for assessing the socio-economic conditions of Backward Classes (BCs) and the population census of various BC communities. Two petitions were filed before the high court seeking directions to conduct a BC census before initiating the process of local body elections, in one petition challenging the inaction of the state govt in launching election preparations well in advance before completion of tenure of the local bodies.Arguing on behalf of the govt, advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas told the court that the planning department is conducting a detailed survey for enumeration of BC communities and 99.5% of the process was completed. He further said the file pertaining to the appointment of SEC was also sent for the governor's approval, and the govt is expecting a decision in a day or two.Arguing on behalf of the petitioner, senior counsel A Satya Prasad said that though the govt is claiming that a survey is being conducted, they do not have any information as to which department is conducting the survey. The advocate general said that village and ward secretariats department is conducting the survey across the state and compiling the data.The high court bench headed by chief justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and justice R Raghunandan Rao directed the govt to submit details in the form of an affidavit and posted the matter for further hearing on April 23.