Bengaluru: The discussion on the Social and Educational Survey report, popularly known as ‘caste census’, at the Karnataka cabinet meeting on Thursday was “incomplete” and it will be discussed again on a later date, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said.

Most of the Ministers have submitted their opinion on the survey in writing to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

“The cabinet today once again discussed the Social and Educational Survey report, the discussion was incomplete. The Chief Minister had earlier asked the cabinet ministers to give their opinion in writing and most of the ministers’ opinions have reached the Chief Minister except three or four,” Patil said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “the subject will be discussed in the next cabinet meeting or the one after that, after getting certain details and studying them.” The last cabinet meeting on May 10 had decided to defer again any decision on the caste census report, to discuss it in detail, as additional information was provided to Ministers.

It is learnt that additional volumes of the survey report, including the taluk wise and district wise population data were provided to the Ministers at that meeting.

Earlier, amid internal differences over the caste census report, a special meeting of the state cabinet that met on April 17 to discuss it, had ended inconclusive, without any major decision.

According to sources, on April 17, some Ministers expressed reservations about the survey report, citing concerns expressed from several quarters calling it unscientific and outdated, and about undercounting. Following this Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asked all Ministers to give their opinion in writing.

Various communities, especially Karnataka’s two dominant ones — Vokkaligas and Veershaiva-Lingayats — have expressed strong reservations about the survey that has been done, calling it “unscientific”, and have demanded that it be rejected, and a fresh survey be conducted.

Objections have also been raised by various sections of society, and there are strong voices against it from within the ruling Congress.

Cautioning his own party government in Karnataka, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday had urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Ministers to ensure that the caste census is implemented properly.

“I want to tell Siddaramaih and all Ministers in his cabinet, do the census (caste census), but that census should be done properly, and it should not bring disrepute to Rahul Gandhi. If you do things to take credit for yourselves, it will cause problems for the entire state,” Kharge said, addressing an event at Hosapete, organised to mark Karnataka Congress government’s two years in office .