Bihar: RLJDs Upendra Kushwaha questions authenticity of caste survey data

According to Kushwaha, many families said that the data is being released but no one has asked them about their caste. He also urged the state government to take necessary steps to put such suspicions to rest.

Bihar government on Monday released caste survey data, with the figures that have ramifications for the Lok Sabha polls next year, showing that Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Extremely Backward Class (EBC) together account for 63 per cent of the states population.

"We welcome this step taken by them. But ever since the data was released, people have been saying that the data has been released but nobody asked them or their family about their caste. This is not the first such instance. When it comes to the BPL list, there is no village or panchayat where the list is 100% correct. Names of most of the poor, landless, homeless people get left out of the list, said Kushwaha.

So, I feel that there is some substance behind such suspicions by people...It is the work of the Govt to put such suspicions to rest...It is also being asked if the Government did this in haste and the report was made somehow," added Kushwaha.

According to the data, Scheduled Castes make up 19.65 per cent and the Scheduled Tribes 1.68 per cent of the population of the state. The data also said that the Hindus comprise 81.99 per cent of the population, Muslims 17.7 per cent, Christians 0.05 per cent, Sikhs 0.01 per cent, Buddhists 0.08 per cent and other religions 0.12 per cent.

The data said that Yadavs, the OBC group to which Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav belongs, is the largest and accounts for 14.27 per cent of the states population. Kushwaha and Kurmi communities form 4.27 per cent and 2.87 per cent of the population, the caste survey said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs to the Kurmi community in the state. The total population of Bihar is more than 13 crores. (ANI)