Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will head the promised Group of Ministers (GoM) that will examine the modalities of enumeration of caste in Census 2011, senior government sources told TheHindu.
The GoM was constituted on June 4, nine days after the Union Cabinet took a decision to do so.
Its 10 other members are the representatives of all the Congress’ partners in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA): Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily, Renewable Energy Minister Farooq Abdullah, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik and Minister of State for Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid.
The government order merely says that the GoM will look into the question of “enumeration of caste, other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in Census 2011” and adds that the report must be submitted to the Prime Minister “expeditiously.”
The setting up of the GoM follows the acceptance of Mr. Mukherjee’s suggestion at the Cabinet meeting on May 26.