Have no plans for caste census in UP: Yogi Adityanath

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said the state government has no plans to conduct a ”caste census” in the state.

”The subject matter of census is mentioned at number 69 of the Union List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India. Census Act 1948 and Census Rules 1990 have been made by the Government of India for census work under which the work of census is done by the Government of India,” he said.

Adityanath said this in a written reply to a question asked by Samajwadi Party member Sangram Yadav. ”No,” the chief minister said in the state assembly in his reply on the government’s plans for ”caste census”.

The Samajwadi Party, which has been demanding a ”caste census” in the state, had included the issue in its manifesto for the 2022 assembly polls.

The issue will be top on the Samajwadi Party’s poll plank for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as part of party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s new formula – the PDA (Pichada, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) that is backwards, Dalits, and minorities – chiefly Muslims