UP govt announces rapid economic and caste survey before polls

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government, on Wednesday, announced that it would go in for a rapid economic and caste survey to ensure that benefits of government sponsored schemes reach the beneficiaries.

The survey is to be completed in three months—well before the Lok Sabha polls next year. The decision for a new rapid economic survey was taken by the state cabinet which met here on Wednesday morning.

Senior UP minister Siddhartha Nath Singh, while briefing reporters, said that the survey would help in adding more families as beneficiaries to government schemes like Ayushman Bharat, ration cards and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

The last survey was made by the Social Economic Caste Census (SECC) by the central government in 2011 and the new census would help the government in better planning with maximum benefits.

“The survey will be completed within three months so that people get the benefits by the end of this year”, the minister said. He said that as per the 2011 survey, there were around one crore BPL families and five crore people eligible for welfare schemes of the government.  The new survey could double this number.

It may be recalled that a similar survey had been carried out by the BSP government between 2007 and 2012 but the same could not be implemented. The Yogi government will also take the findings of that survey into consideration.