Centre snubs Andhra Pradesh on caste-based census

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh which passed a resolution seeking caste-based census in its Assembly recently was snubbed by the Centre here on Wednesday.

Replying to a question of the YSRCP MP V Vijayasai Reddy in the Rajya Sabha, Nityanand Rai, minister of state for home affairs, said that the ministry was aware of the resolution to conduct caste-based census passed by the AP Legislative Assembly. However, the Census schedule was designed in consultation with various stakeholders, including Central ministries.

He further added that the National Sample Survey (NSS) was not specifically designed to estimate the population of a country as well as that of any social group. The information on household social groups was collected in a household based survey of NSS for categorisation purposes only.

He said the population Census was not an ideal instrument for caste-wise/Other Backward Class (OBC) enumeration of population. The Government of India had not enumerated caste-wise population other than Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Census since independence.

To Vijayasai's query on watershed programmes for Visakhapatnam, the minister of state for rural development, Faggan Singh Kulaste, told Rajya Sabha that the department of land resources (DoLR) had sanctioned 15 watershed development projects to Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh covering an area of about 0.53 lakh hectare at a total project cost of Rs 79.05 crore during 2013-14 under the erstwhile Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP).

Subsequently, IWMP was amalgamated as a Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY) in 2015-16. As per information received from Andhra Pradesh, all 15 projects were in progress but the works got delayed due to the pandemic. The deadline for the same had been extended to March, 2022, now, he said.