 "Bihar govt to take suggestions from all parties on caste-based census")
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said that the state government will take suggestions for the caste-based census from all the political parties regarding its implementation process.
"Decisions have been made on caste-based census and the department is already preparing for it. That'll take almost a month but will start the work soon. We'll keep informing parties about it and take suggestions from them. This is in favour of all communities," the chief minister told ANI.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on Thursday gave approval to a caste-based census. The government has allocated a budget of Rs 500 crore for the survey. The exercise will be completed by February next year.
At the state level, the survey will be carried out by the General Administration Department, and at the district level, DM will be the nodal officer. Both of these will be in charge of the panchayat level and block level.
Leaders of all nine political parties were present in the meeting and gave some important suggestions to the Chief Minister.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav had declared the announcement as a "win" and said, "It's a caste-based survey, not a census. It's our win. Today we suggested (in the all-party meeting) that social anthropologists should be included in this and the Central government should also support it financially."
Highlighting the importance of the caste-based census, CM Kumar on May 25 had said that it would enable the government to work for the development of various sections of the society.
Caste Census has become a key political issue in Bihar. Most of the parties in Bihar, including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) which is in Opposition in the state, have called for Caste Census.
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