The Bihar cabinet on Tuesday decided to extend the deadline for completing the exercise of caste-based headcount in the state by three months, to May 2023.
The state government will spend ₹500 crore from its contingency fund for the exercise.
“The cabinet, during its meeting today, also approved a budgetary allocation of ₹2.44 crore for developing a site and an app for the headcount. The general administration department (GAD) is the nodal authority for the survey,” said a senior official of the state secretariat.
In June this year, the GAD has been asked to complete the caste-based census by February next year.
“However, due to the hectic engagement of officials in the matriculations and intermediate examinations and in revision of electoral rolls across the state, the government decided to extend the deadline till May,” said additional chief secretary (cabinet) S Siddharth after the meeting.
Caste-based count has been a major issue in Bihar politics. Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and all constituents of the ruling Mahagathbandhan have long been demanding that the exercise be undertaken at the earliest.
The Congress-led UPA government at the Centre had agreed to conduct the exercise at the national level in 2010, but the data collected during the census were never processed.
The state government embarked on the exercise in the wake of the Centre expressing its inability to undertake caste-based enumeration other than the SCs and STs. This led to some resentment in Bihar, which has a sizeable population of the OBCs.
The state’s bicameral legislature passed two unanimous resolutions, in 2018 and 2019, in favour of a caste-based count.
It has been the contention of Nitish Kumar, himself an OBC, and his ally RJD, which emerged in the thick of the Mandal era, a fresh estimate of various social groups was essential since the last caste census held in 1931, more than 90 years ago.
Meanwhile, the cabinet meeting, which was chaired by CM Nitish Kumar, also approved 13 proposals of different departments.
The cabinet approved the mines and geology department’s demand for release of ₹5 crore from the Bihar contingency fund for purchase of high-speed motor boats, chains and other equipment to crack down on illegal sand mining. The state has been losing revenue heavily because illegal mining in rivers for sand, which often led to gang wars in the riverine belts.
The cabinet also approved the release of ₹2620 crore to match the central grant to the state’s urban development and housing department (UHDH) for development activities of urban local bodies.
(With inputs from agencies)
