Chirag Paswan favours caste census, says data will help in better implementation

Union minister Chirag Paswan has strongly batted for a nationwide castebased census saying data from the exercise will help in knowing the exact population of sections of society that require further upliftmentSpeaking at the India Today Conclave in Mumbai on Wednesday the Lok Janshakti Party Ram Vilas president also said there is no doubt the ruling BJPled National Democratic Alliance NDA will again form government in Bihar where the assembly polls are due in late 2025The Bihar assembly polls will be contested under the leadership of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Paswan maintained referring to the JDU leader and his onetime political rivalThe Dalit leader from Bihar also asserted his party is committed to a certain section of society it representsWe LJPRam Vilas have our own priorities our concerns for the section of the society which we represent If the section is wronged then it is the responsibility of our party to become the voice of that section Paswan said when asked about his stand on castebased census and lateral entry in government jobsOur stand is very clear there should be a castebased census because many policies are made on the basis of caste to bring people of that community in mainstream The government must at least have the data of population of that community so that funds could be allotted accordingly Union Minister for Food Processing saidPaswan said he and his ally BJP are on the same page on the issue of castebased reservations and pointed to the support of the NDA to the caste survey undertaken in his home state Bihar in 2023The minister whose party had strong reservations about lateral entry recruitments in bureaucracy said he had strongly opposed the moveThe LJP Ram Vilas president said he brought to Prime Minister Narendra Modis notice that there was an unrest among Scheduled CastesOBCs over the UPSC decision to fill up key government posts through lateral entry and the move was subsequently rescindedThe firsttime Union minister further said he intends to expand his largely Biharcentric political party and indicated the outfit will contest the upcoming assembly polls in JharkhandAsked about keeping his flock together Paswan asserted all his five Lok Sabha MPs will stay with him and said those predicting that his party will break are only daydreamingOn the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in defence forces the minister said there was no reason to oppose the programme nowPaswan said he and a delegation from his party have held discussions with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh who explained to them in detail about the scheme which has attracted criticism from the oppositionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever