Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Wednesday welcomed the Union Cabinet’s decision to include caste enumeration in the next Census exercise.
BJD president and former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik claimed that his regional outfit had been demanding a caste-based census for long, as his party stands for social justice.
Patnaik posted on X, “Welcome the decision of the Union Cabinet to include caste enumeration in the forthcoming census. @bjd_odisha has been repeatedly demanding countrywide caste census and removal of 50% cap on reservation.”
“In Odisha, we also took certain concrete steps in 2023 to enumerate the number of people belonging to different classes to help us in making plans for their development and upliftment,” Patnaik said, adding that the same objectives would now be met by this decision of the Central government to conduct a caste-based census.
He said: “We in Biju Janata Dal always stand for social justice, especially for backwards classes such as ST, SC and OBC.”
The Union government Wednesday announced that caste enumeration will be included in the next census exercise in a “transparent” manner and slammed the opposition parties for using the caste survey as a “political tool”.
The Congress and other opposition parties have been vociferously demanding a nationwide caste census, making it a major election issue, and some states like Bihar, Telangana and Karnataka have conducted such surveys.
The government decision comes ahead of Assembly elections in Bihar, where several parties including some BJP allies have been coming out in support of the caste census.
Announcing the decision taken by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the census comes under the purview of the Centre, but some states have done caste enumeration in the name of surveys “non-transparently” which has created doubts in the society.
PTI
