Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Wednesday said a caste-based census will help generate a more "authentic" and fresh data on backward classes in the country.
Moily, who has been favouring inclusion of castes in the census, said the exercise will be "more authentic, because after 1931 there is no caste-based data with regard to the OBCs... it is more appropriate."
The Law Minister had a few months ago written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to include castes in the latest census exercise.
Moily, an OBC leader hailing from Karnataka, had told PTI recently that caste-based census was not possible now as the massive exercise has already begun. "Columns have to be added in the forms... the process has already begun," he had said. PTI
