Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar chaired a meeting of nine parties on Tuesday to discuss the state’s caste survey report.
The Opposition BJP asserted that a large number of people were not covered under it.
Apart from Nitish, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS), representatives from the Congress, CPI(ML), CPI, CPM, BJP, and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) were present at the closed-door deliberations that ran for around two hours.
The meeting came amid information that a writ challenging the survey report had been filed in the Supreme Court. It will be heard on October 6.
The report, released on Monday, pegs the Bihar population at 13.07 crore with 36.02 per cent Extremely Backward Castes (EBC), 27.13 per cent Backward Castes (BC), 19.65 per cent Scheduled Castes (SC), 15.52 general or unreserved castes and 1.68 per cent Scheduled Tribes (ST). The caste numbers were counted under 215 heads spread across the categories.
While the ruling Grand Alliance, which includes the RJD, JDU, Congress and the Left parties, lauded the report and its future impact on development policies that would be crafted by the state government, the BJP criticised it.
Asking the state government to clarify whether it was a “survey or census”, the leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, told reporters: “We always supported the survey but the report has several deficiencies. Many people were neither counted nor information was taken from them. We asked how such grievances would be addressed, but the senior officials present at the meeting had no answer.”
Asserting that the mistakes were a result of the hurry in which the exercise was conducted, Sinha added that Nitish had asked officials to look into the matter. The BJP leader also demanded that the entire data be put out in the public domain to bring transparency.
Nitish and Tejashwi did not talk after the meeting.
However, AIMIM leader Akhtarul Iman said that his party had demanded that the state government ensure separate reservations for Muslims within the various caste categories.
Parties like Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party, Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Janata Party, which have no representation in the Assembly, were not invited to the meeting.
