The government has decided to hold caste census next year. The Union Cabinet gave its approval for carrying out caste enumeration as a separate exercise. 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. The caste wise enumeration was given up as a matter of policy after independence. The last census when caste wise data was collected was in 1931. However 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. The BJP and JD (U) have reacted cautiously to the cabinet decision. The JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav said that his party will examine the decision saying that they wanted caste enumeration in the ongoing census exercise. The BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said that they would have been happy if it was done along with census process.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.