Nitish slams BJP for now seeking caste survey law

PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar, who is to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka on Saturday, hit back at opposition BJP on Friday for demanding a new legislation to complete the caste-based survey.
He asked why BJP did not insist on a legislation when they were part of the NDA government in Bihar and when the state government was taking a decision to conduct the survey.Nitish was responding to media queries on BJP Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi's demand that the state government should convene a special session of the state legislature to pass a legislation to end deadlock over the caste-based survey, which has been stayed by the Patna high court.
No comment on SC verdict: Nitish
The CM said, "It is difficult to say anything on it, right now. When there would be requirement for a law, I will inform."
He, however, declined to comment on the Supreme Court's refusal to grant an interim relief to the state government, which had challenged the Patna high court's stay on the survey.
"It will not be appropriate to comment on court order," he said and added: "State government's legal experts are studying the matter in view of the SC order and the government will decide on its future course of action based on their advice."
Nitish also tried to convey that Bihar was not the first state conducting caste-based survey, asking, "Had caste-based census not been conducted at the national level in 2011? It was called 'Socio-economic and caste census'. As we do not have the right to conduct 'census', we opted for 'survey'. We have been demanding for 'caste-based census'. When our demand was not accepted by the Centre and we were told to conduct it at the state level, we began caste survey."