Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said Article 370 of the Constitution, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will never be restored. | File Photo: PTI
The decennial census will be conducted at an appropriate time and will be announced when decided, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday.
The housing listing phase of the census and the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR) were scheduled to be conducted across the country from April 1 to September 30, 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The census will be held at the appropriate time. We will announce it when it is decided,” Shah said at a press conference here, replying to a question on the matter.
The home minister is on a three-day visit to Chhattisgarh, during which he discussed the Naxal issue with senior civil and security officials of the Maoist-affected states on Saturday.
The census operation remains suspended and the Government has not yet announced a new schedule.
Several opposition parties have been demanding a caste census.
However, there has been no announcement from the government on this politically important issue so far.
Officials said that since a general election was held this year, the census is unlikely to be conducted in 2024 due to time constraints.
Moreover, this year’s budget has allocated only Rs 1,309.46 crore for census survey and statistics (Rs 578.29 crore in 2023-24).
The entire census and NPR exercise is likely to cost the government over Rs 12,000 crore, officials said.
This exercise, whenever it takes place, will be the first digital census that will give citizens the opportunity to self-enumerate.
The NPR has been made mandatory for citizens who wish to exercise their right to complete the census form on their own rather than through government enumerators.
To this end, the census authority has designed a self-enumeration portal that has not yet been launched.
During self-enumeration, Aadhaar or mobile number will be mandatorily collected.
The Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner had prepared 31 questions for them to ask. These included whether a household had a telephone, internet connection, mobile or smartphone, bicycle, scooter or motorcycle or moped, and whether they owned a car, jeep or van.
Citizens will also be asked what cereal they consume at home, main source of drinking water, main source of lighting, access to toilet, type of toilet, wastewater discharge, availability of toilet facilities, availability of kitchen and LPG/PNG connection, main fuel used for cooking, availability of radio, transistor radio, television.
Citizens will also be asked about the predominant material of the floor, walls and roof of the house, the condition of the house, the total number of persons normally residing in the household, whether the head of the household is a woman, whether the head of the household belongs to the scheduled caste or tribe, the number of dwelling rooms in the exclusive possession of the household, the number of married couple(s) living in the household, among others.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said Article 370 of the Constitution, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will never be restored.
Shah’s comments came as Jammu and Kashmir’s two main regional parties, the National Conference and the PDP, promised in their election manifestos for the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir that they would work to restore the controversial provision, which was scrapped on August 5, 2019.
“Article 370 has no place in Jammu and Kashmir, not now and not ever. It will never be restored,” Shah told a press conference in the Chhattisgarh capital when asked about it.
The home minister made the remarks at a press conference here after attending a meeting of senior civil and security officials of the Naxalite-affected states.
Restoration of Article 370 and statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, as well as implementation of the autonomy resolution passed by the erstwhile assembly in 2000, are among the 12 guarantees of the National Conference announced in its manifesto for the upcoming elections.
“We are working to restore 370-35A and statehood as it existed prior to August 5, 2019,” the North Carolina election document states.
In June 2000, the National Conference government led by Farooq Abdullah passed a resolution in the JK Assembly seeking to restore the pre-1953 constitutional position in the state.
However, it was rejected by the Union Cabinet headed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Article 370 was abrogated by the Narendra Modi government on August 5, 2019, and the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
The PDP on Saturday released its manifesto for the Assembly elections, vowing to pursue restoration of Jammu and Kashmir to its “original status” and advocate confidence-building measures and regional cooperation between India and Pakistan.
“The PDP is determined to restore the constitutional guarantees that were unjustly removed and is committed to restoring Jammu and Kashmir to its original status, ensuring that the voices of its people are heard and their rights are safeguarded,” he said.
The PDP manifesto said the “unconstitutional and illegal revocation” of Articles 370 and 35A in 2019 had “further complicated the Kashmir issue, deepening the alienation felt by the people of the region”.
On Friday, Shah criticised the Congress for its alliance with the National Conference for the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, accusing the party of repeatedly risking the country’s unity and security in its lust for power.
The Congress has “once again exposed its ulterior motives by allying itself with the Abdullah family’s National Conference,” Shah said.
Posing 10 questions to the Congress and Gandhi, Shah asked, “Does the Congress support the National Conference’s promise of having a separate flag for Jammu and Kashmir?
“Do Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party support the JKNC’s decision to reinstate Articles 370 and 35A, thereby pushing Jammu and Kashmir into an era of unrest and terrorism?”
The full name of the party led by Farooq Abdullah is Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC).
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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