Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that a fresh caste survey will be carried out in the state, The New Indian Express reported.
The new enumeration exercise will be conducted to address claims from several communities that they were excluded or underrepresented in the survey, the Hindustan Times quoted the chief minister as saying. The caste survey is expected to be completed within 90 days.
In April, the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey report prepared by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes was accepted by the Cabinet. The data for this survey was collected by the commission in 2015, during Siddaramaiah’s previous tenure as chief minister.
The findings had drawn criticism from several ministers, MPs and MLAs who claimed that the data did not represent the diverse caste composition of the state. The Vokkaligas and Veerashaiva-Lingayats, Karnataka’s two dominant communities, had objected to the findings, demanding that the report be scrapped and a fresh survey conducted.
The survey had estimated that backward classes made up 70% of the population, Lingayats accounted for 11% and Vokkaligas were 10.2% of the population, The New Indian Express reported.
Siddaramaiah announced the fresh caste survey after meeting with the Congress leadership at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“The report submitted on the caste census has been accepted in principle,” The New Indian Express quoted Siddaramaiah as saying on Tuesday. “However, concerns were raised by some organisations, religious heads and a few ministers as the last survey was conducted in 2015.”
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who was also part of the meeting in New Delhi, said that the survey will be redone to allay the doubts about the sanctity of the data.
“Data will be collected through door-to-door and online surveys,” the newspaper quoted Shivakumar as saying. “The process would be done in a very transparent manner. We will correct all concerns expressed about the previous caste census.”
The decision comes ahead of the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, during which details regarding the methodology and timeline of the re-enumeration will be finalised, the Hindustan Times reported.
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