Census or survey? All you need to know as Bihar govt, Centre spar over caste-based scrutiny

livemint.com:

Debate over a caste-based survey in Bihar continued this week with the BJP-led NDA taking potshots at the Nitish Kumar government. The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Monday that it was the only entity that could conduct a census. Meanwhile the Chief Minister and his deputy have continued to stress the difference between a census and a survey.

“It is the Central government's duty to conduct a census, we only want to conduct a survey in the state. Census is what is done at the Centre level and we cant do that. We want to gather financial information about the different people irrespective of any caste, rich or poor, Hindu or Muslim living in the state so that, we can work for their welfare," Kumar said on Tuesday.

His remarks echo a similar clarification from RJD's Tejashwi Yadav last week. “We don't want a caste census, it is a caste-based survey. The caste census is the union government's right as per the constitution...

This will give us the numbers, and we will get scientific data. And we will also do an economic survey. Because what we believe is that people are poor in every section.

We will come up with schemes after we know where the poverty is and benefit them. How can we decide whom to get a reservation if we don't know the economic conditions..." the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister had said. Leading Bihar politicians including JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary have slammed the Central government for filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court against the Bihar’s government decision.