Mallikarjun Kharge calls govt’s caste move eyewash, points to ‘meagre funding’

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Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday called the Centre’s announcement on caste census an “eyewash” and said the Modi regime had no intention of conducting a genuine exercise.The leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha said this was evident from the ₹515 crore the Centre had earmarked for the exercise, which, he said, was grossly inadequate.Speaking at the Labour Day celebrations organised in Bengaluru by its civic body BBMP, Kharge said the Siddaramaiah regime incurred an expenditure of ₹165 crore about 10 years ago for Karnataka’s caste census report.The funding the Centre has set aside would be barely sufficient for the job in just one state of Uttar Pradesh, Kharge said.

If the Centre had indeed been serious about the caste census, it would have earmarked funds in the Union budget, but now it has hurriedly announced one, he said.

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The All India Congress Committee president also spoke about the erstwhile UPA regime’s plans to extend the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs) to the private sector and urged the Modi government to take the idea forward and introduce reservation in the private sector.He also urged the Centre to give proportionate reservation to SC, STs and OBCs after conducting a proper caste census and expand the quotas by raising the ceiling of 50% on reservation.