Number of castes in Bihar, which Nitish Kumar The government has taken up after the Centre’s inability to conduct a caste-based census, got the nod of the state cabinet on Thursday. Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, Chief Secretary Amir Subhani said that a budget allocation of Rs 500 crore has been made for this exercise.
“The survey will be completed by February 23 next year. The work will start soon after the notification is issued by the General Administration Department.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday chaired an all-party meeting and agreed to conduct a state-specific survey. Briefing reporters after a meeting that had been hanging for several months, Kumar said the exercise would be named ‘jaati adharit ganana’’ (caste-based headcount), but clarified that this would be too large in scope for a survey as it would take into account people of all religions and their socio-economic conditions.
Kumar had underlined that there was unanimity among members of all parties on the issue, as was evident earlier when resolutions in favor of caste census were passed unanimously by the state legislatures in 2019 and 2020.
The caste census has become an emotional issue in Bihar where politics has been dominated by OBCs, whose last count was done during the British Raj. Kumar, who attributes his own rise in no small measure to the Mandal rebellion, had led an all-party delegation that met the prime minister. Narendra Modi Last year to create pressure for demand. However, the Center expressed its inability to expand the census beyond Dalits and Adivasis. He insisted that it is wrong to assume that his ally BJP in the state and at the Center opposes caste census, a charge repeatedly leveled by opposition parties like RJD.
The chief minister, who belongs to the JD(U), said the survey findings would be shared with political parties and the public from time to time, using all communication platforms, including social media. However, he avoided questions about the massive exercise that cost the poor state a bomb.
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