Census ’11 to count illegal immigrants too
Census 2011 will cover all people living in India, including illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Registrar-General and Census commissioner C. Chandramouli on Wednesday said the exercise will cover anyone living in India. “Our job is to count each person living on Indian soil,” he said. The vital part — population enumeration — will be conducted nationwide simultaneously between February 9 and 28.
Information about caste will not be collected in this phase but in a separate phase between June and September. Meanwhile, the data of migrant populations will be collected on the night of February 28 at airports, railway stations, sea ports and bus terminals. Mr Chandramouli said a few hundred villages in the Naxal-affected districts of Bengal and Chhattisgarh were “unapproachable” during the first phase of house-listing, but expressed hope that these would be covered in the second phase. “Everybody will be counted, even if he has illegally entered (India),” he said.
***
Arrest a shock for DMK
M. Gunasekaran
Chennai
Feb. 2: The arrest of former Union telecom minister and DMK propaganda secretary Andimuthu Raja two days after party president and Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi’s meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and PM Manmohan Singh, has sent shock waves across the party. The episode is seen as embarrassing to the party at a time when it is gearing up for Assembly polls. Party sources said the arrest has deeply upset Mr Karunanidhi, who has so far shielded him. After news of the arrest broke, Mr Karunanidhi was closeted with party seniors and avoided visitors. Party sources said the DMK would neither air its disapproval in the open nor rush to Mr Raja’s rescue.
Post new comment