GoM seeks political parties' views on caste census

New Delhi, Jul 2: The Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting over the issue of caste-based census was reportedly unsuccessful and the panel has decided to seek the views of political parties.

The 90-minute meeting, which was held on Thursday, Jul 1 and headed by Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, did not succeed in finding a solution to the controversial matter as difference of opinions existed in the GoM.

Therefore, the ministerial panel has decided to give political parties four weeks to submit their response over the matter, official sources revealed.

Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and the Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who missed the earlier EGoM meet over fuel pricing, also decided to give the meeting on the caste census a miss. New and Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah was also not present at the meeting.

All these ministers are key allies of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have decided we will meet again very soon."

The demand for a caste-based census came from the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) during the budget session of parliament.

OneIndia News