Karnataka Chief Minister Sidddaramaiah on Tuesday, July 9, said that the caste census report would be placed before the Cabinet soon for a discussion. The State Commission for Backward Classes had submitted the Socio-Economic and Educational Survey to the government on March 4, before the Lok Sabha election.
Addressing the media, Siddaramaiah said the government does not know the content of the survey which is yet to be placed before the cabinet for discussion. He defended the survey and said that the process was necessary to weed out ineligible Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders. “Nearly 4.8 crore people in Karnataka have BPL cards, which means 80% of our population is under poverty. In comparison, Tamil Nadu has 40% population and Kerala has 36% population with BPL cards,” he said.
The survey was conducted in April and May of 2015. A total of 1.6 lakh personnel were deployed for the survey held across 1.3 cr households in Karnataka. The state spent Rs 169 crore for the survey. The task of digitising the report was given to Bharat Electronics Limited. In 2018, portions of the survey were leaked. According to leaked details Scheduled Castes form the largest community in the state, followed by Muslims. The survey pegged the population of Lingayats and Vokkaligas quite less than what is estimated now.
Chairman of Backward Classes Commission K Jayaprakash Hegde in November 2023 stated that the caste census was safe and that only the worksheets prepared by the Kantharaj Commission were missing. “If the worksheets were available, the work would have become easier for us. The data is safe. The previous government did not reply to our letter but the present government did and asked us to submit the report using the uploaded data,” he added.
