Raipur, Sep 1 (PTI) Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday launched a mobile application and web portal of the Chhattisgarh Quantifiable Data Commission (CGQDC) to record the population of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the state, an official said.

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Speaking at the launch at his official residence, the chief minister said providing justice to the deprived sections of the society and creating equal opportunities is the state government's top priority.

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“The state government has taken several steps for the welfare of farmers, forest dwellers, labourers and landless people. The state government had increased the reservation for the OBCs from 14 per cent to 27 per cent through an ordinance on September 4, 2019. Apart from this, a provision of 10 per cent reservation has also been made for people from the EWS category," Baghel said.

However, this decision had been challenged in the court, following which the Chhattisgarh High Court, while staying the implementation of the order, directed the state government to submit a quantifiable data of the concerned population, he said.

In compliance with the High Court's directive and to legally strengthen the provisions of reservation, the state government has constituted a Quantifiable Data Commission and its portal and mobile app have been launched, Baghel said.

The mobile app and web portal will help the commission complete its work in a systematic and accurate manner, he said, appealing to people from the OBC and EWS categories to cooperate in the work of data collection in the survey.

A total of 5,549 supervisors have been appointed for the survey in the state, of which 1,103 have been appointed in the urban areas and 4,446 in gram panchayat areas.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)