 "Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot")
The Rajasthan government on Saturday issued an order to conduct a caste survey in the state.
The order came just days after Bihar released the findings of its caste survey and ahead of the assembly polls in Rajasthan due later this year.
Rajasthan, ruled by the Congress, will be the second state in the country to conduct such a population count.
The order was issued by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment after the state cabinet's nod.
According to the order, the Rajasthan government will conduct the survey with its own resources for collecting information and figures related to social, economic and educational level of all its citizens.
The Department of Planning (Economic and Statistics) has been made the nodal department for the work.
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However, the order does not provide a time frame for the conduct of the population count.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told reporters that an order would be issued in this regard.
On October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar released the findings of its much-awaited caste survey, which revealed that Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs) constituted a whopping 63 per cent of the state's total population.
A nationwide caste census is a key agenda of the opposition INDIA bloc, which believes it will help the alliance in the forthcoming elections in the Hindi heartland where caste politics plays a major part.
The Congress is a part of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc as well as the ruling coalition in Bihar.
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