NSC members who quit never flagged concerns, says government
Another point of conflict, sources said, was the commission’s uneasiness over the delay in release of labour force data.
Published: 31st January 2019 08:03 AM | Last Updated: 31st January 2019 08:03 AM | A+A A-
NEW DELHI: Left red-faced over the resignation of two National Statistical Commission (NSC) members, the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government on Wednesday hit back, saying these members never raised their concerns with it.
On Tuesday, two independent members of the NSC — commission’s chairman P C Mohanan and Delhi School of Economics professor J V Meenakshi — resigned following disagreements with the Union government over the back-series GDP data and delay in release of labour force survey.
“I have resigned from NSC... We thought that the commission is not very effective nowadays. We also thought that we are not able to discharge the commission’s responsibility,” Mohanan had said.
According to sources, the resignations were prompted by the government’s dismissal of the back series data drafted by them. The draft back series data had claimed that Indian economy did better under the erstwhile UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government. The NDA government later came up with its own back series data.
Another point of conflict, sources said, was the commission’s uneasiness over the delay in release of labour force data. The general feeling has been that the government is delaying the data deliberately.
However, the government on Wednesday claimed that NSC had itself advised the ministry to finalise and release it.
“These concerns were not expressed by the members in any of the meetings of the commission in the last few months,” the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said in a statement, which further added that the ministry values NSC’s advice and takes appropriate action.
Referring to the labour force survey conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under MoSPI, it said, “NSSO is processing the quarterly data for the period from July 2017 to December 2018.”
It further said that in view of India’s strong demographic dividend and around 93 per cent of informal workforce, it is important to improve measures of employment through administrative statistics, complemented by periodic surveys.
