Karnataka Backward Class Commission chairman Jayaprakash Hegde finally submitted the state’s caste census report to chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday.
Delayed several times, the socioeconomic and education survey, described as the caste census, was first commissioned in 2014 when Siddaramaiah was chief minister in his first tenure in 2013. The term of the panel’s previous chairman, H Kantharaj, ended in 2019 while Hegde was appointed his successor in 2020.
The report was ready in 2018 before the Karnataka assembly elections, but both BJP chief ministers BS Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai did not take any action due to a “technical issue”. They said a member secretary of the commission had not signed the report before he was transferred out of that post.
This report is now scheduled to go before the state cabinet next week. Siddaramaiah told reporters that he will place it before the cabinet. “Based on the discussions during the cabinet meeting, the decision on whether to table it in the assembly will be taken,” he said.
Hegde said Kantharaj had compiled the previous report on the basis of the data collected. “Due to technical reasons, it could not be submitted. We have now compiled the census report and submitted it to CM Siddaramaiah,” he said.
“I cannot tell you what the essence of the report is as we have submitted a confidential one to the government. It is for the government to take a decision on it. You should ask the government for further details,” he added.
On whether the survey conducted was unscientific, Hegde said, “Who told you it was unscientific? Have any of you read it? Without reading the entire report, how can you call it so?” He added that the numbers quoted in sections of the media are false.
The survey was conducted by 1.6 lakh officials, including 1.33 lakh teachers, between April 11, 2015 and May 30, 2015. A total of 5.98 crore people belonging from 1.35 lakh families were surveyed. It cost Rs 164.84 crore, while data collected in 2015 was validated by the IIM Bangalore, on the basis of the 2011 Census.
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