Mallikarjun Kharge writes to PM Modi demanding caste census

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded an uptodate caste censusIn his letter Kharge said in the absence of an updated caste census a reliable data base so very essential for meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes particularly for OBCs is incompleteI am writing to you to once again place on record the demand of the Indian National Congress for an uptodate Caste Census My colleagues and I have raised this demand earlier in both House of Parliament on a number of occasions as have leaders of many other Opposition parties the Congress chief said in his letterYou are aware that for the first time the UPA Government conducted a Socio Economic and Caste Census SECC during 201112 covering some 25 crore households For a number of reasons however the caste data could not get published even though Congress and other MPs demanded its release after your government came to power in May 2014 he saidAlso Read Criminals should be given harshest punishment but under law of land Congress after Atiq Ahmeds killingIn the absence of an updated Caste Census I am afraid a reliable data base so very essential for meaningful social justice and empowerment programmes particularly for OBCs is incomplete This Census is the responsibility of the Union Government Kharge saidIn the letter dated April 16 he also pointed out that the regular decennial census was to be carried out in 2021 but it has not yet been conductedWe demand that it be done immediately and that a comprehensive Caste Census be made its integral part Kharge saidSharing Kharges letter to the prime minister Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tweeted Jitni aabadi utna haq Congress President kharge ji has written to PM demanding that the decennial Census that should have been conducted in 2021 be done rightaway and a Caste Census be made its integral part This will put social justice amp empowerment on a firmer footingAddressing a rally in Katnatakas Kolar Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday had also dared Prime Minister Modi to release the 2011 castebased census data in public domain and also demanded the 50 per cent cap on reservation be removedUPA in 2011 did the castebased census It has the data of all the castes Mr Prime Minister you talk of OBCs Make that data public Let the nation know how many OBCs Dalits and tribals are there in the country Gandhi had said at the Congress Jai Bharat election rally in Kolar in the runup to the May 10 Karnataka pollsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever