SIR won’t be able to identify immigrants: CJFD
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By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Feb 22: The Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (CJFD) has categorically stated that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls would not be able to identify illegal immigrants in Manipur.
As a part of its ongoing series of public consultation programmes on the census operations scheduled to begin from April 2026, a public meeting was held today at Wangkhem, Imphal East under the aegis of CJFD.
Speaking at the public meeting which was attended by volunteers of several local clubs and Meira Paibi organisations, CJFD convenor Jeetendra Ningomba pointed out that the census exercise started during the British period when Manipur was not a part of India.
But the present situation of Manipur is not conducive for any census exercise. Moreover, the ongoing SIR would not be able to identify illegal immigrants in the State, he said.
The CJFD convenor asserted that only the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or a similar mechanism can identify illegal immigrants.
Since there was PR administration in the State, CJFD has been asking to carry out census operations only after illegal immigrants are identified. Now there is a popular Government and it must take a Cabinet decision to defer the scheduled census operations until illegal immigrants are identified.
The same Cabinet resolution must be sent to the Government. In case the scheduled operations go ahead, the illegal immigrants will be taken into the count and this will only embolden the advocates of separate administration, Jeetendra Ningomba said.
In order to ward off such a situation, CJFD has been asking the authorities to first implement NRC before carrying out the census operations, he said.
He said that the census operations can be deferred based on the situation of a region.
Earlier, census operations were postponed in Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh etc considering the then situation in these States, Jeetendra said.
Census operations can be put off if a region or State is facing widespread violence, natural disaster or pandemic, he added.
The CJFD convenor said that they are prepared to launch a sustained mass movement if the State Cabinet fails to adopt a resolution to defer the census operations and the Government chooses to go ahead with the census operations as per the schedule already announced.
CJFD has no objection to the census operations but this time it should be preceded by NRC or a similar mechanism, he said.
All census operations must be put on hold until and unless illegal immigrants are identified, he said.
Jeetendra Ningomba also pointed out the humanly impossible population growth rate detected during the last census exercise in nine sub-divisions of hill districts.
Asserting that the scheduled census operations will be neither accurate nor fair given the prevailing situation of Manipur, he urged the State Government to see that the census exercise is deferred.
If the Government refuses to listen to these legitimate and imminent concerns, illegal immigrants from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal will acquire Indian citizenship and they will start demanding all the rights entitled to a citizen. They may even launch violent aggression and threaten the very survival of indigenous communities, he warned.
IMPHAL, Feb 22: The Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (CJFD) has categorically stated that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls would not be able to identify illegal immigrants in Manipur.
As a part of its ongoing series of public consultation programmes on the census operations scheduled to begin from April 2026, a public meeting was held today at Wangkhem, Imphal East under the aegis of CJFD.
Speaking at the public meeting which was attended by volunteers of several local clubs and Meira Paibi organisations, CJFD convenor Jeetendra Ningomba pointed out that the census exercise started during the British period when Manipur was not a part of India.
But the present situation of Manipur is not conducive for any census exercise. Moreover, the ongoing SIR would not be able to identify illegal immigrants in the State, he said.
The CJFD convenor asserted that only the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or a similar mechanism can identify illegal immigrants.
Since there was PR administration in the State, CJFD has been asking to carry out census operations only after illegal immigrants are identified. Now there is a popular Government and it must take a Cabinet decision to defer the scheduled census operations until illegal immigrants are identified.
The same Cabinet resolution must be sent to the Government. In case the scheduled operations go ahead, the illegal immigrants will be taken into the count and this will only embolden the advocates of separate administration, Jeetendra Ningomba said.
In order to ward off such a situation, CJFD has been asking the authorities to first implement NRC before carrying out the census operations, he said.
He said that the census operations can be deferred based on the situation of a region.
Earlier, census operations were postponed in Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh etc considering the then situation in these States, Jeetendra said.
Census operations can be put off if a region or State is facing widespread violence, natural disaster or pandemic, he added.
The CJFD convenor said that they are prepared to launch a sustained mass movement if the State Cabinet fails to adopt a resolution to defer the census operations and the Government chooses to go ahead with the census operations as per the schedule already announced.
CJFD has no objection to the census operations but this time it should be preceded by NRC or a similar mechanism, he said.
All census operations must be put on hold until and unless illegal immigrants are identified, he said.
Jeetendra Ningomba also pointed out the humanly impossible population growth rate detected during the last census exercise in nine sub-divisions of hill districts.
Asserting that the scheduled census operations will be neither accurate nor fair given the prevailing situation of Manipur, he urged the State Government to see that the census exercise is deferred.
If the Government refuses to listen to these legitimate and imminent concerns, illegal immigrants from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal will acquire Indian citizenship and they will start demanding all the rights entitled to a citizen. They may even launch violent aggression and threaten the very survival of indigenous communities, he warned.