Mangaluru:
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Friday said a report on caste census in the state would be tabled in the next meeting of the Cabinet.
The Karnataka Socio-Economic and Education Survey report, commonly known as the ‘Karnataka caste census’, was originally scheduled to be presented in the state cabinet meeting on January 16.
“We didn’t table the caste census in this cabinet meeting but we will table it in the next meeting,” he told reporters here. Asked what was there in the report, he said, “I don’t know what is there because it has not been tabled yet.” On the Mangaluru bank heist, the chief minister said he has instructed police to find out the culprits.
Caste census has emerged as a contentious issue, particularly among the state’s dominant communities — the Lingayats and Vokkaligas — who have expressed reservations about the survey done, calling it “unscientific” and have demanded that it be rejected and a fresh survey be conducted.
The survey was commissioned by the previous Congress government in 2015, with then Backward Classes Commission chairman H Kantharaju heading the committee.
The survey, conducted at a cost of approximately Rs 169 crore, was completed by 2016 but subsequent governments kept it in cold storage. In 2020, the BJP government appointed Jayaprakash Hegde as the commission chief. Hegde submitted the final report to the Siddaramaiah government on February 29, 2024.
Hegde had said the report was prepared based on data collected by 1.6 lakh officials, including 1.33 lakh teachers, under the leadership of respective deputy commissioners across the state.
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