Caste Census Key to Equal Resource Access: Bhatti

Speaking at the meeting to deliberate on caste census at Gandhi auditorium at Bowenpally in Secunderabad, Bhatti said that the decision on caste census was taken after Congress party’s beloved leader Rahul Gandhi was convinced during his padayatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari by interacting with people from all sections of society.

He firmly believed that the caste census was the only way to make available the nation's resources and assets equally to all sections of society and to render justice to all. Bhatti recalled that Rahul Gandhi had predicted before general elections that Congress would assume power in Telangana and announced that the caste census would commence from here itself.

From the day Congress came into power in Telangana, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and the entire Cabinet started working on giving a shape and direction to Rahul Gandhi’s thoughts and ideas on conducting caste census in the country, he said.

The first step was to pass a unanimous resolution on caste census in the State Assembly, then issuing a GO based on the Assembly resolution through the Planning department to bring it into the public domain. Today, Rahul Gandhi is holding discussions with intellectuals, social scientists of Telangana society to decide what questions to be included in the caste census survey to cover all categories of people and what type of information should be elicited through the survey, Bhatti said.

He also said that meetings were already held with key leaders of the Congress on caste census at Gandhi Bhavan. As per instructions of PCC President B Mahesh Kumar Goud, the District Congress Committees met and gathered information at the district level.

As part of this process, suggestions and views of intellectuals will be taken and Rahul Gandhi's ideas and opinions on the subject will be understood to frame and finalise questions in caste census surveys to collect comprehensive information, Bhatti added.