The Union Cabinet has given its approval for carrying out caste enumeration as a separate exercise next year. Briefing media, the Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram said that house to house enumeration of castes will be done from June to September next year. Mr. Chidambaram said that every point of view has been accommodated and a time table has been drawn up after the Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee’s consultations with various political parties. Stating that now there will be a biometrics capture, head count without affecting its integrity and house to house enumeration of castes, Mr. Chidambaram hoped that this will be a satisfactory arrangement. Parties like RJD, Samajwadi Party and JD (U) had disrupted proceedings in Parliament during the Budget and Monsoon sessions while pressing for caste census. Government later set up a GoM to consider all aspects related the issue. The RJD leader Lalu Prasad has described the cabinet decision as a 'victory' of the political parties. He said all castes will be benefited by such a census. An official release said that a suitable legal regime for collection of data on Castes will be formulated in consultations with the Ministry of Law and Justice. The field operations of caste enumeration will be conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner and an expert group will be set up by the government to classify the caste or tribe after enumeration is completed. The caste wise enumeration was give up as a matter of policy after independence. The last census when caste wise data was collected was in 1931.