CM Nitish demands special status for Bihar, appeals for caste-based census across country

Patna (Bihar) [India], November 7 (ANI): Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday demanded special status for Bihar state so that it can move forward and also appealed to the Centre to conduct a caste-based census across the country.
CM Nitish was addressing the Winter session of the Bihar Assembly when he said "When caste-based census has not been conducted till now in the country, then how come you (opposition) all are saying that some castes have increased and some have decreased? This is bogus talk. We will also appeal to the Central Government to conduct a caste-based census in the entire country so that policy can be made for everyone. Bihar is a poor state, hence give it the status of a special state so that it can move forward."
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also proposed to increase the scope of reservation from 50 to 65. It is proposed to increase the reservation to 75 per cent by including 10 per cent of EWS.
"When in the 80s, President Gyani Zail Singh called me and said that there should be a caste-based census in the country. Then this thing came to my mind. In 2019, the bill was cleared from the same Legislative Assembly and sent to the Centre. In 2020, the same happened. Then COVID arrived. We wanted to do this from the beginning. Everyone was involved in this, work was done on a large level, and everyone got trained. When the work started in full swing, the court stopped it. Then the court looked at it again and allowed it. The Supreme Court also said that we will not interfere in this," Nitish Kumar said.
He further presented numbers from the caste-based report and announced the policies of the state government for the same.
"According to this report, 59.13 per cent of people in Bihar own houses. Approximately 40 lakh people are living in slums. 63,850 people have no house. By carrying out a campaign they will also be provided houses. More than 94 lakh families are economically poor, all of them will get a grant of Rs 2 lakh from the state so that they can start some work," Nitish added.
Bihar Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary also said "In our survey, the literacy rate in Bihar stands at 79.70 per cent. The literacy rate in women is higher in comparison to men. In Bihar, for every 1000 males, there are 953 females in comparison to 918 females in 2011."
He further said that the families that earn up to Rs 6,000 a month have been kept under the poor category. (ANI)