RANCHI: Transport, Revenue, and Land Reforms Minister Deepak Birua confirmed that the state government plans to conduct a caste-based survey in the next financial year.
Birua was responding to a question raised by Congress MLA Pradip Yadav during the ongoing Budget session of the Jharkhand Assembly on Monday. With this, Jharkhand will be the third State in the country to conduct caste census after Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
Birua Assured that the Personnel department has been appointed as the nodal agency for the survey.
Birua emphasized the government’s commitment to the survey, revealing that the decision was made in February of the previous year. The Minister also stated that efforts would be made to carry out the survey during the upcoming fiscal year, following a similar approach used in Telangana and Bihar, further adding that the Personnel department had issued a notice on March 4 to hire an agency that would assess the required workforce, task levels, and financial aspects of the exercise.
Birua also mentioned that he had been in discussions with several agencies, though the process would take some time. With only a few days left in the current financial year, the minister assured that the survey would be conducted promptly in the next fiscal year.
Meanwhile, MLA Pradip Yadav also requested the government to include a Sarna religious code in the survey to account for the population of Sarna followers.
Notably, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the then Chief Minister Champai Soren had given his approval for the caste census in Jharkhand. After the caste census was conducted in Bihar, many parties started demanding the same in Jharkhand.
Notably, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had also promised caste census during his ‘Nyay Yatra’ in Jharkhand. The previous government led by former CM Hemant Soren also wanted to conduct a caste census in the State, but it could not make a decision that which department would do the census.
As per the rule book, the census is allotted to the Land and Revenue and Land Reforms Department, but the work of caste-based census was not allotted to any department in the executive rules.
Champai Soren government, however, succeeded in resolving the issue and gave his approval for conducting the survey by Personnel Department which is to prepare a proposal regarding the caste census.