Bengaluru:In yet another U-turn, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the much-awaited report of the socio-economic survey popularly known as caste census will not be tabled before the cabinet meeting scheduled Thursday.
Last week, Siddaramaiah had said that his government was keen to accept the report of the caste census carried out by the Karnataka Permanent Backward Classes Commission after discussing it in the next cabinet meeting. But today, he made a U-turn saying the report will not be tabled in the meeting to be held on Thursday.
"We wanted to table the report in tomorrow's cabinet meeting. But we will discuss it in the next cabinet meeting," Siddaramaiah said in Delhi without assigning any reasons.
The caste census was carried out during the first tenure of Siddaramaiah in 2015 with an aim to provide government facilities in proportion to the populations of the communities. Though it was submitted to the government last year after years of delay, the state government till date has not accepted it despite Congress being a strong advocate of a nationwide caste census.
The reason being stiff opposition from politically strong Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities to make the findings of the census public. As per the leaked data of the census, the population of both the communities is far less than what is believed till date. This has left both communities worried as their political hegemony will come to an end if the leaked data comes to be true after the release of the data. Both the communities have been therefore calling for a fresh census claiming the 2015 census has not covered all households.
Unable to go against the sentiments of their respective communities, Lingayat and Vokkaliga MLAs and ministers have also been privately opposing making census findings public, much against the party's stand. On the other hand, the backward classes, SCs and STs have been constantly putting pressure on the Karnataka government to accept the census report and make it public.
Caught between the two sides, the Siddaramaiah government has not been able to take any decision on the census report and many in the Congress attribute the CM's decision to postpone the tabling of the report in tomorrow's cabinet meeting to this dilemma.
