CS warns against abnormal growth

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, May 18: As a part of the preparations for initiation of Census 2021, the first meeting of State Level Coordination Committee for Census 2021 was held today.
During the meeting, which was chaired by the committee Chairman, Chief Secretary Dr J Suresh Babu, authorities concerned were given stern instructions to ensure that any incident similar to the inconsistent/abnormal population growth in some blocks of Senapati district detected in the previous census, do not occur.
The meeting which began from 3 pm at Secretariat South Block lasted around an hour and during the meeting, feedback were collected from the DCs regarding the previous census.
In the meeting, M Hare-krishna, who is about to leave as the Director of Census Operations Mani-pur, spoke about the details of census to the officials, including M Yaishkul, who will become the new Director.
According to a reliable source, the Chief Secretary directed authorities concerned of the districts which are yet to compile a proper lists of towns and villages to do the needful after the whole process of the Lok Sabha election is completed.
The Census officers were also directed to aid in the process as well, the source added.
Pointing out that pre-test was also discussed during the meeting, the source mentioned that 10 enumerator blocks of Porompat Sub-Division and 10 enumerator blocks of IMC Ward No 22 of Imphal East, were selected for pre-test and the process of Census 2021 will be carried out on trial basis in the said blocks
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary sought feeback from Imphal East DC regarding pre-test for the district but found that the official was absent. The CS also found that Imphal West DC too was absent from the meeting when the issue of submission of utilisation certificate for census 2011 was brought up, which very much irked the Chief Secretary.
The Chief Secretary even expressed disappointment at the absence of the two DCs from Imphal, when all others from even far off areas were present for the meeting.
The source continued that on the other hand, the meeting also deliberated on the unusual increase in population in three blocks of Senapati (Paomata, Purul and Mao-Maram) during the 2011 census. The total growth rate of the State in the 2011 census was around 25 percent but  the three blocks of Senapati district recorded an absurd 135 percent in growth rate.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary asked who gave approval for the controversial figure to which the then DC of the district, Nidhi Kesharwani replied that no approval was given from her side. Finally, Census Directorate officials explained that the Registrar General of India (RGI) gave the approval and as such the CS instructed all the officials to make sure that such an error is not repeated in the coming census.
The possibility of merging SECC with the census works was also proposed in the meeting, but ultimately it was reasoned that the two had totally different questionnaires and other technical differences, the source mentioned, adding that Commissioner (Home) Kh Raghumani Singh is the Nodal Officer of the Census 2021.