Hyderabad:
Telangana will become the second Congress-ruled state after Karnataka to undertake a caste census – an exercise that would continue from November 6 to 30. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has also ordered the formation of a Backward Caste Commission, following the orders of the Supreme Court. who wanted the new commission to guarantee quota for them in the local body polls.
On November 5, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will be in Telangana to attend a program on caste census. Mr Gandhi is expected to meet associations, student organizations and intellectuals to express their views on the issue.
The previous Backward Caste Panel was based on a 1993 law and was only mandated to collect data on education and employment quotas. This time, the census will collect the socio-economic profile of all castes, sources said.
According to sources, 48,000 teachers will be deployed for the study, for which primary schools will work only half a day this month.
They go from house to house and conduct surveys to collect data. This includes social, educational, employment, economic and political data. The government staff will put stickers on doors. There will be 85,000 counters and observers.
Caste enumeration was one of the most important election promises of the Congress.
At that time, Mr Reddy, who led the Congress campaign, had said in an open letter that only a caste census would ensure justice for the backward classes.