Decision on caste census in process - PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday informed that the government was in the process of taking a final decision to include caste as a factor to be enumerated in the ongoing Census process.
Replying to a question on the issue, which caused many adjournments in the Lok Sabha during last session of the Parliament, Dr Singh said, “I made a statement in Parliament in which I had said that we would take into account the views expressed by all sections of the House and would shortly take appropriate decision. I will soon ask the Cabinet to consider the views expressed in the Parliament. That process is on.”Informing that the final decision on the issue is yet to be taken, the Prime Minister said, “Discussion on the issue will take place in the Cabinet and whatever decision is taken it will be brought before the people.”
When asked to comment whether a decision favouring inclusion of caste in the Census process would not lead to Mandalisation, the Prime Minister said, the government will keep everything in the mind before taking a final decision. “At the moment, we have not taken a decision,” he added. most of the political parties, including BJP, SP, RJD and JD(U) made strong pitch for inclusion of caste as factor to be enumerated.

LIC, PF officials to join census duty

AHMEDABAD: The issue of 'refusal' of LIC and Provident Fund authorities to relieve their employees for census work almost reached criminal proportions when Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) officials reached Ellisbridge police station to report the matter.

According to AMC sources, a team of AMC officials went to Ellisbridge police station after the employees from LIC delayed in joining the census work. On the issue, an Ellisbridge station official said, "AMC officials came to lodge an FIR against the employees refusing to report for the census work. Later, both the parties came to a truce and no complaint has been lodged." Recently, in an interim order, Justice KA Puj in the Gujarat High Court ruled that AMC's decision to deploy LIC employees for census work is not illegal. The court vacated the stay which allowed LIC workers to keep away from the census work. "The issue has been sorted out after having a long discussion with the concerned authorities.

More than 500 employees of LIC and PF have been asked by the AMC authorities to join the work," said deputy municipal commissioner and in charge of city census work, Arjav Shah. "More than 300 employees will now be part of the census work." added Shah. However, out of the allotted 339 LIC employees, only 200, out of the sanctioned 200 PF employees only 125, will join the work," a senior AMC official said, "The delay in joining has affected the census work. The work has to be completed before June 4." Earlier, the LIC employees had approached the high court against AMC for allotting them census exercise. Census-2011, is a comprehensive database of citizens. AMC authorities have divided the city in 10,977 blocks for the exercise. This is the 15th Census since 1872.

RSS opposes caste-based census

NAGPUR: RSS on Sunday said nationality should be the basis in the ongoing national census and not caste.

"The RSS is following the principles of late Dalit leader B R Ambedkar. Right from the beginning, RSS is in favour of a casteless society and any attempt to dilute it will hurt the sentiments of people," RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi told. RSS has been striving to build a casteless society, he said. "There is no provision for identifying and separating illegal migrants in the country while preparing the National Population Register (NPR). This will prove to be a threat to the national security and integrity," he said.

According to him, preparation of a multi-utility identity card on the basis of NPR will be incorrect. "Therefore, RSS demands that identity cards be issued only after verification of nationality and the nationality provision should be the basis for NPR," Joshi said. He said government should fix some criteria for giving reservation to other backward communities (OBCs). "There should not be any hurry and government should initiate a national debate on it. There needs to be a dialogue with various social groups in this regard," he said.

When his attention was drawn towards BJP's demand for inclusion of a provision of OBC category in the national census records to identify OBC population, Joshi evaded a direct reply saying it was for the BJP to decide. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently said that the Cabinet will shortly take a decision on whether caste-based census should be undertaken or not.