Chennai, June 26 (Reporter) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to conduct immediately conduct decadal Census integrating the same with Caste Census and sought his persnal intervention on the issue. Mr Stalin's letter to Mr Modi comes hours after the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted an unanimous resolution urging the Centre to conduct the caste-based census along with population census to ensure that that fruits of development must reach all sections of the society, particularly the most marginalized. He also appended a copy of the resolution adopted in the Assembly along with his letter to Mr Modi and recalled a letter written him in October last year. In the letter, copies of which were released to the media here, Mr Stalin said "I write this letter with reference to the need for immediately commencing the Caste-based Census in India. I had already written a Letter on October 20, 2023, wherein I had urged you to undertake the decadal Census integrating the same with Caste Census." "As we are aware, “Census” is a Union subject in Entry-69 of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India and the Census operations in the States/UTs are conducted as per the provisions of the Census Act, 1948", he pointed out. Mr Stalin said presently, the caste-wise and tribe-wise data of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes alone are enumerated under the Census Act, 1948. "As a developing country, I consider that fruits of development must reach all sections of the society, particularly the most marginalized". For framing policies and targeting specific interventions for the socio-economic development of the underprivileged, census data has always been the basis,. he added. In a country like India, the social milieu influences the mobility of various communities across the economic levels, he said. "As Caste has historically been a key determinant of the prospects of social progress in our society, it is essential that Caste-based socio-economic census data is made available in public domain", he added. The Chief Minister said further, when Laws and Acts are enacted on the basis of verifiable socio-economic indicators drawn from decadal Census Report, it gets legal validity. However, no contemporary data is available since the last caste census which was conducted in India in 1931. The need for quantifiable data relating to socio-economic and educational status of various castes, communities, and tribes of the entire population of the State has been emphasized in several of the judgments of the Supreme Court for classification of Backward Classes and Most Backward Classes, he said. Considering all the above, the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly today passed an unanimous Resolution urging the Union Government to integrate caste-based census with the national decadal census and to commence the census operations immediately. "I enclosed herewith a copy of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Resolution and I look forward to your personal intervention in this regard", he said...////...