Former chief minister and parliamentarian from Etah,Kalyan Singh has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,demanding caste-based census in the country. Such a census will help create schemes and programmes for the welfare of different castes,the national patron of the Jan Kranti Party pointed out. A prominent leader of backward castes from UP,Singh shared his letter with mediapersons at his Lucknow residence on Friday. Expressing his support for caste-based census,he said only people who are against social justice to all castes can say no to the inclusion of caste in census. The Prime Minister had initially said in Parliament that the census will be caste based, he said. But I am surprised to see that even though the first round of census is on,there is no column specifying caste in the data form. Almost all political parties have expressed their support for a caste-based census,he said. Cutting across party lines,leaders have supported the idea even in Parliament. Hence,I fail to understand why there was no provision for caste details in the census, said Singh. He added that since the Prime Minister has already announced this in the house,it is not justified to hand over the issue to the group of ministers for consideration. Demanding that a caste column be included in the census with immediate effect,he said,I know the first round is on,but still,this column can be included and should be done at the earliest.
