The opposition has criticised the Centre for not including caste-figures and economic status of people in the census data. Following the Opposition onslaught, the government agreed to have a full-fledged discussion on the subject under Rule 193, which does not entail voting, in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Raising the issue soon after the House reassembled at 2 pm, Opposition Leader Sushma Swaraj said government should agree to a debate on allowing caste-based census, which could also compile data on poverty indices to settle dispute on the actual poverty figures. She also expressed serious concern over the insertion of a new column, ‘nationality as declared’, which allowed the people to declare their nationality. ``Earlier, officials involved in census operations used to first verify nationality claims of the people. The new system would legitimise the claims of illegal immigrants, who had crossed into the country from countries such as Bangladesh,’’ she opined.
Later in the day, former BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, while speaking to newspersons, asked the government to delink the census operation from the exercise to create the National Population Register. ``Our fear is that clubbing the two operations together would open up possibilities for illegal immigrants to legitimise their status for good,’’ he said. BJP has already given notice for a discussion on caste-based census. Similar notices had been given by the Samajwadi Party and RJD.
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