CM Siddaramaiah says Centre declared caste census with eye on Bihar polls
BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government had decided to include caste enumeration in the census, keeping in mind the coming Bihar Assembly elections. 'In 2015 itself, our Congress government in Karnataka spent Rs 192 crore on conducting a socio-economic and educational survey. Inspired by this and keeping the Bihar elections in mind, the Union government had decided to conduct the census,' he told reporters here.
Siddaramaiah said that he would give full credit to Rahul Gandhi, who had been seeking such a caste census for long, for the Union government's decision.
'I welcome the Union government's decision to include caste enumeration in the census. To ensure social justice to people, a social and educational survey should be conducted along with this census. The ceiling of 50% for extending reservation should be removed to make quota proportional to the population,' he said.
"Like Rahul Gandhi, he had also sought reservation in private educational institutions as per Article 15, Clause (5) of the Constitution," Siddaramaiah said.
He said that a decision on the socio-economic and educational survey (SES-2015) report will be taken at the cabinet meeting on May 9.
On whether the Centre's census will affect the state government's survey, he said it will not as the SES-2015 report has already been presented before the cabinet. The Centre is yet to conduct the census, he added.
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