Why are you sitting over caste data? Lalu Prasad asks Centre

PATNA: Reiterating his demand for publication of caste data of the socio-economic and caste census (SECC-2011), RJD boss Lalu Prasad on Saturday asked the BJP-led NDA government not to sit further over the caste figures and make it public at the earliest.
“Make the data of caste census public at the earliest. Why are you sitting over it?” Lalu said in a statement issued here.He also said that rule of 10% people over 90% population in the country would not be allowed further. “Dus Ka shashan nabbe par nahi chalega, nahi chalega,” he said in a style of Hindi slogan.
RJD chief has been demanding since last year that the caste data should be made public so that people should know as to which caste or social group is lagging behind in the development or education.
“Every person in this democratic country has a right to know the population of his or her caste. People should also know what population of a particular caste is. The majority of landless persons belong to which caste? The beggars belong to which social group? We keep hearing many claims about caste-related numbers. The figures of caste census, if released, will show the real picture about society,” Lalu told TOI on Saturday in support of his demand.
Just two weeks ago, JD(U) president and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, while addressing a conference on ‘social statistics’, also reiterated that caste-based data of the SECC be made public “to ensure the empowerment of all those lagging behind in development.”
“Caste data of the Socio Economic Caste Census-2011 should be made public…I’m saying this not for any caste-based politics but to erase the caste divide itself. The ST/SC census has been carried out after independence but the backward castes’ census has not been done, depriving them of proportional representation,” Nitish had said on June 24 while addressing the conference hosted by the Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI).
“Every caste should know its strength and weakness in terms of population and other things,” the JD(U) president had said.
Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Lalu’s RJD are partner in Bihar’s ruling grand alliance of three parties including Congress.
During the 2015 assembly polls, Nitish Kumar joined RJD boss in demanding that the Centre must make the caste-based data public.
In July 2015, the Centre released other figures of the SECC-2011, but deliberately withheld the caste-based data.