Caste census: Nitish to meet PM

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to discuss the issue of the caste-based census in the country. On Thursday, while announcing this, Mr Kumar said that he had written to the Prime Minister requesting his time to meet leaders from the state to discuss the issue.

“I had requested for an appointment with the Prime Minister to meet him along with a delegation from Bihar to discuss the issue of a caste-based census. I have been informed that he has allotted time to meet us on August 23 at 11 am”, Mr Nitish Kumar said.

The Bihar CM has been strongly advocating a caste-based census in the country. He has been saying that a divergent stand adopted by his party on the issue will not affect the NDA in Bihar.

The demand was triggered by the Opposition and other regional parties after the Centre recently clarified that it was planning to hold a census only for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), indicating that OBCs and the upper castes would not be covered under the exercise.

“A caste-based census should be done at least once for the welfare of our

society”, Mr Nitish Kumar had said earlier.

Mr Nitish Kumar said that a resolution regarding the caste-based census was passed unanimously in the Bihar Legislative Assembly in 2019 and again in 2020.

Last week RJD leader

Tejashwi Yadav had also sent a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to meet the Bihar leaders to discuss the issue.

According to Mr Kumar, the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Mr Tejashwi Yadav, will be a part of his delegation.

“Tejashwi Yadav along with other Opposition leaders met me while the House was in session last month and they suggested that we should meet the Prime Minister to discuss the issue. The BJP leaders will also be a part of this delegation”, Mr Kumar said on the sidelines of his meeting with Bihar governor Phagu Chauhan here on Thursday.