NRC before Census, says JFD

IMPHAL, Jul 16 : The census exercise that has been proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs is a good initiative, however, it must be conducted in Manipur only after the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or a similar mechanism is implemented, the Campaign for Just & Fair Delimitation (JFD) has asserted.
At present, Manipur is reeling under a crisis that has crippled normal life and free movement of the people. Moreover, the State is facing the problem of illegal influx of immigrants. A census or a delimitation exercise at this juncture will not be conducive, said the organisation in a statement.
It said the National Register of Citizens or a similar mechanism must be implemented first in the State to identify illegal immigrants before a census or delimitation exercise is conducted.
A census or delimitation exercise, without prior NRC exercise, will not yield true data. The census or delimitation exercise must be based on the actual and true data and it must reflect the same. Hence, the NRC or a similar exercise to identify illegal immigrants is highly required before conducting the proposed exercises, said the Campaign for Just & Fair Delimitation.
Meanwhile, the campaign committee (JFD) is organising a discourse on the census of the Centre on July 18 at CCSK Office in Imphal, it said.
The discourse will begin at 1 pm, it said, urging members of civil society organisations, intellectuals, demographers, statisticians and legal fraternity to take part in the discourse.