New Delhi:
Representing a united front in the national capital, an influential conglomerate of 14 civil society organisations (CSOs) from Manipur has asked the Centre to stop the national census in the state that saw ethnic violence in the last three years, until the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise is complete.
The delegation, which came to Delhi on July 5, in a statement said they gave a memorandum to top officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) pointing out that the ethnic crisis can only be resolved by “identifying who are the original Indian citizens and who are illegal immigrants in the state.”
The delegation said they met with the Registrar General and Census Commissioner Mritunjay Kumar Narayanthe and other top officials linked to the census work in the northeast region.
The CSOs said pushing forward with a standard census amid widespread displacement and institutional breakdown would skew vital state data and institutionalise demographic discrepancies.
The civil society groups said that in order to prevent long-term political distortions, the Centre should notify the formal beginning of the NRC exercise in Manipur before launching any census activity. They insisted that the NRC update be done with 1951 as the base year.
The conglomerate sought immediate legal safeguards to protect the state’s indigenous political representation. “The final population data of the 2027 census should be kept under ‘withheld’ until and unless the completion of the NRC (1951) updation processes, and that no delimitation process/exercise is entertained until and unless the completion of the NRC (1951) updating process or the final publication of the 2027 census,” the delegation from Manipur said.
The delegation shared extensive data pointing to structural shifts in Manipur’s border areas. “Manipur has a long history of cross-border influx, mainly from the Indo-Myanmar border, for more than 70 years,” they said.
ALSO READ | Tribe Names In ST Certificates Of Some Manipur Government Staff Don’t Exist In Official List: RTI
The memorandum detailed how the porous border has facilitated unregulated migrations over generations. “Due to the open border, numerous similar tribes have entered India, taking advantage of various Scheduled Tribes lists under the Scheduled Tribes Order of 1950.”
According to the representation, multiple legal experts and local organisations have established that the resulting population spikes across several districts have become “alarming.” The CSOs pointed out that unchecked demographic shifts had led to the current security crisis and socio-political friction in the state.
“We strongly believe that the present conflict in Manipur is because of illegal immigrants who claim to be Indian citizens and have taken over the original Manipuri inhabitants through illegal immigration, thereby having a significant impact on demographic changes in the state,” the statement said.
It said the population shifts have fueled deep institutional anxieties, causing “various communities” to start “demanding separate administration or greater autonomy.” They requested that the high-level committee on demographic changes to prioritise an exhaustive, time-bound investigation into these regional variations.
The delegation in their meeting with the MHA said the demand for an updated citizen register is backed by legislative consensus, including the Manipur assembly which had passed multiple resolutions demanding NRC to be carried out.
The delegation said the Manipur government in January 2023 submitted its latest resolution to the then Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, alongside an additional letter requesting immediate implementation.
It clarified that they are not opposed to national development exercises, and acknowledged that the census is a “gigantic National task” that remains “very important for future planning and making development programmes.” However, they said the general public is currently “opposing this national task because it is directly related with the delimitation exercises of parliamentary constituencies as well as assembly constituencies.”
ALSO READ | Manipur Proposed To Remove ‘Any Kuki Tribes’ From ST List. Tribal Affairs Ministry Says…
The Delimitation Act of 1972 was executed in Manipur based on the 1971 census figures, and no fresh delimitation has occurred since. The CSOs reported widespread public dissatisfaction with subsequent census counts, noting that “some of the hill districts like Chandel and Senapati are abnormally high compared to others in the 2001 census, and it affected the delimitation processes directly.”
The memorandum said that following intense public and legal scrutiny, the Manipur High Court had stated “nine hilly sub-divisions are required to recount the census 2001 again.” Because these alleged abnormalities were never legally rectified, the wider delimitation exercise for Manipur has remained completely stalled for more than 40 years, they said.
Source link
[ad_3]
