Suspend census process, opposition tells state govt

Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress-led opposition in the assembly demanded from the state government to suspend census enumeration process until National Population Register (NPR) fears are allayed. While moving a notice seeking leave for adjournment in the assembly, the opposition alleged that NPR and census have the same questionnaire and hence the state government cannot change questions as promised.
However, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state government cannot obstruct the census enumeration process. “The census process will go on. But the state government has ensured that none of the questionnaire in the NPR is incorporated in the census. Directives have been given to all district collectors that no enumerators should carry out activities meant for NPR,” said Vijayan.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the state government has no role in the questionnaire and it has been prepared by the census directorate. “The census directorate has started sending letters to the civic body secretaries urging them to appoint enumerators for census. NPR and census directorate are the same now and hence the Centre will issue the questionnaire inclusive of the NPR. The state government cannot do anything on this. Hence, the census operations in the state should be suspended,” he said.
IUML’s M K Muneer said that the state government has not taken the issue seriously. All enumerators, once appointed, will be directly under the census directorate and they can only obey orders of the census registrar. “The chief minister should discuss with officials and review the decisions. All letters by the registrar of census includes mention of the NPR too. Hence, the state government can suspend the census process for not collecting data for the NPR,” said Muneer.
Earlier K M Shaji of the IUML, who issued the notice for the adjournment motion in the House on this, said that in the guise of census enumeration the Centre wants to collect details for NPR too. He said that the state government should protest against this and stop all procedures for census.
Parliamentary affairs minister A K Balan had come with a point of order against Shaji, claiming that he cannot seek the leave for an adjournment motion since he is facing an election case in the Supreme Court. But the speaker overruled this and said he can stay away from voting. “He can attend all the proceedings of the House,” said the speaker. Later, the opposition staged a walkout from the House since the speaker denied permission for a discussion on the notice by suspending the proceedings.