Manipur Census to be updated through biometric system to safeguard indigenous people

Imphal: Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh on Friday informed the House that as a measures to safeguard indigenous people of Manipur, he will urge the Centre to update Manipur census by using the technology of biometric system in addition to Aadhaar seeding.

Biren was responding to the starred question raised by opposition MLA K. Ranjit Singh on the last day of the second session of 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly.

Seeking information Ranjit said colleting census data has been becoming a serious issue in the state due to the increasing influx rate of non-locals in Manipur.

He asked at what time the collection of census data will start for Manipur which is usually done for a period of 10 years. What measures have been taken by the state government to prevent from non-locals while collecting census data and will there be facility for aadhaar seeding or electronic census while collecting census data for Manipur.

Biren responded that collecting census data is to be done for a period of 10 years. Collection of updated census data for the entire country falls on February, 2021, however due to the Covid pandemic it was not done in time.

He said till date there is no information when the collection of census data will start and the date should be fixed by Register General of India and Census Committee.

As preventive measures taken by the state government to filter non-locals while collecting census data of Manipur, chief minister sent a demi official letter to concern union home minister on May 5. In the letter it urged the central government to take precautionary measures while collecting updated census data of 2022. As during the census data collection in 2011, some issues were detected related to socio-political. The letter also mentioned to take necessary steps to delete automatically the wrong data submitted by the respondents and enumerator or to prevent while putting wrong data, he added.

Till date there is no provision for aadhaar seeding while collecting census data. In addition of the mode of collecting census data manually in paper the government is planning to include collecting of census data through mobile application, Biren said.

He said he already proposed the central government for Aadhaar seeding during a recent meeting of all the chief ministers of the country along with the union government leaders at New Delhi. However, he said, Aadhaar seeding will not be reliable in the state as some people had been arrested on account of making fake Aadhaar.

Ranjit opined that Supreme Court has given an order to start delimitation process for four states including Manipur and President has given the approval. He requested the Leader of the House to inform the central leaders to perform the census data collection seriously as in some hill districts even cattle and pigs are reportedly included in census data collection.