PATNA: A day after the Centre asserted that the census would begin soon after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said the enumeration exercise should commence “immediately”.

The JD(U) supreme leader also said the census should have been completed in 2021, claiming that the “decadal census has been delayed in the country for the first time”. “Why wait for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls… why not now? The decadal census should begin immediately. The Centre should start the enumeration exercise immediately,” Kumar told reporters here when asked about Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s announcement on the census.

Shah on Wednesday asserted that the census would begin soon after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“The enumeration exercise should have been completed in 2021. This is for the first time, the decadal census has been delayed in the country. There is no need to delay it further. We wanted a caste-based headcount along with the census but the Centre did not agree. Finally, we conducted a castebased survey on our own,” Kumar said.

He claimed that the castebased survey, in which social groups other than the SCs and STs are also counted, is “beneficial for all”.