Waiting for appointment to meet PM Modi to discuss caste-based census: Nitish Kumar

Patna (Bihar): Reiterating the demand for the caste-based census in the country, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said he is waiting for an appointment to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue.

Briefing mediapersons, the Chief Minister said, “The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has informed us about receiving my letter regarding the demand for conducting a caste-based census. We are waiting for an appointment.”
Kumar last week said he had not received any response from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the matter and added that the issue is social, not political.

“The demand of the caste census is not just the demand from Bihar but other states also. Our party MPs had written a letter seeking time to meet the Prime Minister. The opposition parties in Bihar also wanted to meet the Prime Minister with us. We had written a letter to the Prime Minister regarding this,” he had said.

He had said a resolution regarding the caste-based census was passed unanimously in Bihar Legislative Assembly as well as the Legislative Council in 2019. A resolution was passed unanimously once again in 2020 in the state Legislative Assembly.

Asked if the Bihar government will conduct the caste census at its own level in case there is no response from the Centre, Kumar had said, “Census is conducted for the entire country. Earlier, the caste census was done by Karnataka once… If it is required, then we will discuss the matter with all the parties in Bihar.”

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in Bihar Legislative Assembly Tejashwi Yadav also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the demand for a caste-based census. Yadav urged the Centre to reconsider the issue.