CM to hold all-party meet on caste census on June 1

The much-awaited all-party meet in Bihar on the contentious issue of a statewide caste census issue will be held on June 1, state’s parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said on Tuesday.

The much-awaited all-party meet in Bihar on the contentious issue of a statewide caste census issue will be held on June 1, state’s parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said on Tuesday.

Bihar parliamentary affairs minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary (HT Photo)

In a statement, Chaudhary said the state government had decided to go ahead with its plan to conduct caste wise enumeration of people after the Central government ruled out such an exercise despite the state legislature’s two unanimous resolutions favouring the same.

Earlier this year, a delegation of leaders from Bihar, led by chief minister Nitish Kumar, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and sought his intervention for conducting the caste census. “The CM announced to do it on the state’s resources after the PM expressed his inability to include the caste enumeration along with the census,” Chaudhary said, adding that the meeting has been scheduled at 4 pm.

Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had been mounting pressure on the CM to hold the all-party meeting on the issue. The BJP, which is lead partner of the ruling coalition in Bihar, has been largely silent on the issue.