K VENKATESHWARLU
The Telangana Assembly’s budget session is likely to begin in the second week of February. The government is planning to introduce the BC Caste Census Bill in the budget session.
The Adviser to the Telangana government on matters related to Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Backward Classes (BCs) and minorities Shabbir Ali revealed. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is paying special attention to conducting a caste census in
Telangana. As promised in the Congress manifesto, the CM is committed to conducting the caste census soon.
Revanth has entrusted BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar with the responsibility of drafting the Caste Census Bill. The Chief Minister has instructed officials to study the procedure in Bihar and other states which have already launched a caste census.
Officials were directed to adopt the best possible procedures for the census after studying the methods that were followed to conduct the caste census in other states.
The CM wanted to conduct the caste census to extend benefits to all social groups. The Congress has already announced the conduct of a caste census as its national agenda before the election to help weaker sections. The Bihar government conducted a two-phase caste census survey four months ago. It has already been announced that the census results indicate that 63 per cent of the population in the state comprised Backward Classes (BCs).
The Karnataka government conducted a caste census named Socio Economic and Education Survey last year. The Andhra Pradesh government also has started the caste census process. The British Government conducted a caste census as part of its population census in 1931. The governments of Independent India are still considering the 1931 census data as standard. No caste census has been carried out after India attained freedom.
