From: Jayasingh, DD News, Chennai
(With inputs from Shri Vinod Chandran, Asst Director (News))
To: Ed-in-C, DD News Hqrs
TN ASSEMBLY PASSES RESOLUTION SEEKING CASTE-BASED CENSUS
The Tamil Nadu Assembly today unanimously passed a resolution seeking a nationwide caste-based population census.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister MK Stalin said caste based census is essential to formulate policies to ensure equal rights and opportunities in education, economy and employment to every citizen. He said the power to conduct such a census is vested with the Centre. He elaborated that the decisions of a few state governments based on their own caste-based census have been struck down by courts and therefore the central government’s census only will have legal sanctity.
R Arul of the PMK, an NDA partner, insisted that the state government or even local bodies are empowered to conduct caste-based census. He urged the state government to conduct the enumeration at the earliest. The BJP member Nainar Nagendran also asked the state government to hold the enumeration on its own.
Intervening in the discussion, the state law minister Ragupathy said the Collection of Statistics Act 2008 permits the state governments to conduct caste-based enumeration but the Census Act 1948 has overarching power over it, and therefore the nationwide census by the Centre alone can withstand legal scrutiny.
