Activist accuses Cong govt of sharing caste survey data with int'l org

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Popular Kannada film producer and activist Prashanth Sambargi leveled serious allegations against the state government on Friday, accusing its leaders of sharing the state's socio-economic caste survey report with an international missionary organisation.

Speaking at a press conference, Sambargi alleged that despite lacking the authority to conduct such a survey in 2015, the Congress completed a Rs 150 crore exercise by employing 1,60,000 people and covering 13.5 million households to determine the number of castes, composition, reservation status, and the benefits received by the people.

"We were shocked to find data related to the caste census of 32 districts of Karnataka on the Joshua Project website. This seems to be a conspiracy on an international level. The state government has to answer how and why the data was leaked, if it really was," he said.

The Joshua Project, on its website, claims to be a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the fewest followers of Christ.