left parties and other major regional parties on Tuesday stepped up their demand for release of caste census data and cautioned the Centre for raising the issue in the forthcoming Parliament session.
Apart from CPI(M), SP, JD(U), RJD and DMK leaders are expected to unite and evolve strategy to hit the Government in Parliament over not releasing the caste count data in the Socio-Economic and caste census 2011. Congress is also expected to back this demand of Opposition parties.
DMK Chief, Karunanidhi, senior CPI(M) leader Subhasini Ali and Congress spokesperson Rajiv Gowda have also favoured making the caste count public.
Senior CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali said that Centre should make public caste-based data from the Socio-Economic and caste census to reveal the real picture of the financial status of those belonging to the backward classes.
While the Government has categorically ruled out that not releasing the caste count has nothing to do with Bihar polls, lalu Prasad’s RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), which have come together to fight the State’s Assembly elections have made a strong pitch to make it public in an apparent attempt to consolidate OBC votes.
JD(U) president Sharad Yadav told PTI that the issue will be raised in both lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and he is in talks with other Opposition parties to firm up a joint strategy to “force” the Government to bring the caste count in public domain.
Alleging that Government is “hiding the truth from the country” by not releasing the data of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Class, Minority and Upper Class in the country so as to “minimise the quota for reserved classes cleverly in future”, Yadav said, “We will raise the issue of caste count both in lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.”
In a statement, JD(U) general secretary KC Tyagi said, “Janta Dal(U) condemns the Central Government’s effort of not publishing the caste based data in its first Socio-Economic and Caste Census, being released after eight decades. Janata Parivar will take this issue in coming Parliament session.”
DMK president, M Karunanidhi, urged the Centre to immediately release the caste data enumerated under the Socio-Economic and Caste Census 2011 so that appropriate upward revision could be done in reservation. Another party in Tamil Nadu, PMK also demanded release of caste details of the census.