"Rajasthan will also conduct caste census like Bihar", says CM Ashok Gehlot

Ashok Gehlot. File pic

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has announced that the state will conduct a caste-based census like done in Bihar.

Gehlot spoke to the media after a state party meeting in Jaipur on Friday.

"Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made the caste census system in the Raipur session of Congress, and we will do it here on the basis of the same. Rajasthan government will also conduct a caste census like Bihar. We will take the concept that there should be participation of the people as per their population. Instructions will be given to conducting caste-based census on the lines of Bihar," CM Gehlot said.

The report of the caste-based survey conducted in Bihar was released on October 2 by the Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government. The Congress is an ally of the government in Bihar.

Asserting the importance of a Caste-based census, Ashok Gehlot said, "When we talk about social security, it can be implemented only when we know what the situation is caste-wise. There are different castes living in the country who do different jobs, when we know how much population each caste has, then we can make special schemes for them."

Earlier in Chhattisgarh, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday asserted if Congress is re-elected to power in the state, a caste census will be conducted in the state, similar to the one carried out in Bihar.

"I announce that if Congress repeats government in Chhattisgarh, then like Bihar, we will also hold caste census in the state," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said at a public event in poll-bound Chhattisgarh's Kanker.

The Bihar government released caste survey data showing that the Other Backward Class (OBC) and Extremely Backward Class (EBC) together account for 63 per cent of the state's population.

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