Rashtriya Lok Janata Dal (RLJD) president Upendra Kushwaha on Saturday went on a march towards the Raj Bhavan in Bihar to protest against the caste survey report. A memorandum was submitted to Governor Rajendra Arlekar seeking a review of the report.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Kushwaha alleged that the report published by the State government was not only “impractical” but also a deep conspiracy by Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar against some castes belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC).
The march started from Gandhi Maidan, where thousands of party workers from across the State had gathered and raised slogans against the government of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Ram Pukar Sinha, general secretary and spokesperson of RLJD, said that a 15-member delegation was allowed to meet the Governor and a memorandum was submitted. The meeting between the delegation and Governor lasted half an hour.
“There are many discrepancies in the caste data released for the first phase of the socio-economic survey. There are lakhs of families whom no one has met during the survey. In this situation, there is a big possibility that either their details have not been captured in the survey or incomplete information has been taken from the neighbours and put in the survey. The present government has reduced the figures of many castes just to gain political mileage. Some castes that are already weak will have to suffer many losses due to the policies in future too. These inconsistencies must be corrected,” Mr. Kushwaha said.
He pointed out that the figures for those belonging to the Baheliya caste, Chandravanshi (Kahar, Kamkar) caste and Mali (Malakar) castes mentioned in the survey report are lower than data from ethnographic study.
“The ethnographic report was made by A.N. Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna. According to the ethnography report, the number of Baheliya caste is 67,535, whereas in the caste report, the number is 8,026. Similarly, in the ethnography report, the number of Kahar has been stated as 30,32,800 whereas in the caste survey, the number has been shown only as 21,55,644. At the same time, the number of Mali has been stated as 13,15,465 in the ethnography report whereas in the caste survey their number is 3,49,285,” the RLJD leader said.
He added that there would always be dissatisfaction among those caste groups who feel that their numbers have been deliberately undercounted or have been left out of the report.
“The data should be re-checked at the panchayat level and the details of the families who have been left out should also be made a part of the socio-economic survey,” he demanded.
Meanwhile, Bihar State University Service Commission (BSUSC) chairman and ophthalmologist Rajvardhan Azad has been nominated as Member of the Legislative Council after the seat fell vacant following the resignation of Mr. Kushwaha earlier this year.
