Congress demands Manipur census be deferred until normalcy restored, displaced people return home

Imphal : The Congress has urged the BJP-led Indian government to prioritize the resettlement of internally displaced people and restoration of normalcy in the violence-hit Manipur state before conducting the census, questioning how house listing can be carried out while thousands of displaced people remain in relief camps.

According to Kashmir Media Service, addressing a press conference, Manipur Congress president Okram Ibobi Singh said that more than 60,000 internally displaced people are currently staying in different relief camps across the hill and valley areas.

“The majority of their homes have been demolished. So how will house listing of such people be conducted,” Singh asked.

He said people from one community were unable to enter areas dominated by another community in several districts, making a comprehensive census difficult under the current circumstances.

“Let displaced people first return to their native places, and till then, the census should be deferred by the Indian government,” he said.

Singh stressed that Manipur’s situation was different from that of other states and called for the government to ensure the safe return and free movement of people across communities before beginning the census exercise.

The self-enumeration phase of Census 2027 began on August 17, while the main house-listing exercise is scheduled from September 1 to September 30.

Meanwhile, students demanding implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Manipur before the census staged a protest outside the Directorate of Census Operations in Imphal. Police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

Earlier, hundreds of protesters in Imphal East and Imphal West also held a torch rally on August 16, demanding that the NRC be implemented before any census-related activity in the strife-torn state to identify alleged illegal immigrants.

Pertinently, more than 260 people, mostly Christians, have been killed and thousands displaced in ethnic violence between the Hindu-dominated Meitei and Christian-dominated Kuki-Zo communities since May 2023.