Centre deferred Census exercise as per people’s wishes: Manipur CM | India News

Manipur Chief Minister Y Khemchand Singh on Wednesday said the Centre deferred the conduct of the Census in the state as per the wishes of the people.

Singh made the remarks on the inaugural day of the eighth session of the current Manipur Assembly.

The CM, addressing the House, said, “In August 2022, the then chief minister N Biren Singh moved a resolution that NRC (National Register of Citizens) should be carried out in Manipur and a letter was subsequently sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) regarding this in 2023.” “The same was reaffirmed in the 2024 session of the assembly, and the resolution was sent to the MHA. Following the President’s Rule and installation of the new government, a two-day seminar was conducted by the state Home Department this August in which it was resolved that NRC would be conducted before the Census,” he said.

Following these developments and after learning about the grievances of the people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders deferred the Census exercise in the state, the CM said.

This was in accordance with the wishes of the people, Singh said.

“As to the questions raised that an official order has not been issued in this connection, Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla and I personally attended the meeting in Delhi chaired by Shah in which the decision was taken,” he said.

On August 31, the CM Secretariat said that the Census exercise has been deferred in the state following a high-level review meeting chaired by Shah in New Delhi.

The state had been witnessing protests seeking NRC updation before the conduct of the Census.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)