Public meet says no to census

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Apr 2: A public meeting held today at Charangpat Luxmi Bazar categorically asserted that no census operations should be carried out in Manipur until and unless illegal immigrants are identified.
The public meeting was held under the aegis of the Campaign for Just and Fair  Delimitation (CJFD) on articulating people’s response to the Government’s preparations to conduct the census exercise forcibly.  
Speaking at the gathering, CJFD convenor Jeetendra Ningomba asserted that identification and deportation of illegal immigrants is a must for the survival of indigenous people.
Even though the CJFD has been repeatedly asking the authorities concerned to defer the house listing work scheduled from September 1, 2026, the authorities have been paying no heed, he decried.
The Government’s preparations to carry out house listing and population enumeration when tens of thousands of people have been living in relief camps away from their native villages following the violent crisis which erupted on May 3, 2023 smacks of sheer arrogance and insensitivity, Jeetendra said.
The Government knows fully well that it will be impossible to carry out census operations in a fair and proper manner under the prevailing situation, he said.
Yet the Government is poised to go ahead with the census operations as per schedule. This is nothing but a surreptitious ploy to annihilate the indigenous people, the CJFD convenor said.  
Reiterating that the Government’s plan to carry out census operations forcibly will be opposed tooth and nail, he warned that the Government must bear full responsibility for any untoward incident in case it still opts to dismiss the collective voice of the people and go ahead with the census operations forcibly without first identifying and deporting illegal immigrants.