The Union Cabinet on Thursday decided to set up an expert group headed by NITI Ayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya to collate caste count.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pointed out that some States had not yet sent the complete data to the Census department. He said after the expert committee’s classification of caste data, the Centre will release the caste census data at an “appropriate time.”
The Cabinet also approved Rs1670-crore phase-2 project for digitaisation of courts known as E-courts. It also decided to abolish 295 obsolete laws by bringing four repeal act in the forthcoming session.
Briefing media on Cabinet decisions, Jaitley blamed the Opposition parties for politcising the issue on caste census even as most of the opposition parties-ruled states have not yet submitted the information on census data. “A decision was taken today (Thursday) to set up a committee chaired by Vice Chairman of NITI
Ayog, which will classify this caste data. When the task is completed, it will be made public at an appropriate time.”
The Government has been criticised by parties, including Samajwadi Party, JD(U), RJD and DMK, for refraining from releasing the caste-based data in its first Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC).
Brushing aside suggestions that the Government avoided giving the caste count in the survey report due to political reasons ahead of Bihar polls, Jaitley said that it will be good if the states, who are “politicising” it, send their recommendations of caste consolidation at the earliest.
He said that the caste census conducted by the Registrar General of India has come out with 46 lakh categories of caste, subcaste, different surnames in the caste and clan names, which have been sent to the states eight-nine months back for clubbing them to consoldiate the caste count.
He said that the government is keen to release the caste data at the earliest as soon as the states send the details because the committee headed by Panagariya will only then be able to classify it. “It will be good that states, which are politicising it, send their caste consolidation recommendation at the earliest. They cannot hold back the recommendation and then say you please release it,” he said, adding so far most of the states have not been able to send the caste consolidation details.
In a bid to speed up disposal of pending cases, the Cabinet cleared phase two of a project to computerise courtrooms and connect them with jails through video conferencing facility so that cases of undertrials can be heard at a faster pace. The Cabinet approved the second phase of eCourts Mission Mode Project at an estimated cost of Rs 1670 crore.
Carrying on with the exercise of repealing irrelevant laws clogging statute books, the Cabinet approved a bill seeking to annul another set of 295 obsolete Acts. The Repealing and Amending (Fourth) Bill, 2015 will be introduced in lok Sabha for annulling 295 Acts which have been declared as redundant by respective central ministries.
Cabinet also approved revised cost estimates for Phase-I of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project for Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. “The original cost has been enhanced by Rs. 835 crore to Rs 2331.71 crore from Rs. 1496.71 crore. This will address the vulnerability of coastal communities to cyclone. This section of the population is generally poor and from the weaker sections of society,” said the statement.