NEW DELHI, June 5: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday assured the southern states that the delimitation exercise will take care of the concerns expressed by these states and discussions will be held with all stakeholders at the appropriate time.
In a post on X, a day after it announced that the Census exercise will be concluded by March 1, 2027, the MHA said the Union Home Minister Amit Shah has “clarified on many occasions that in delimitation exercise, concerns of southern states will be taken care of and discussed with all concerned at an appropriate time.”
As per Constitutional norms, the first Census held after 2026 can be used as the basis to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies. The next general election is expected to be held in 2029.
On Wednesday the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had questioned the timing of the Census, saying that the ruling BJP had deliberately delayed the exercise to 2027, “making their plan clear to reduce Tamil Nadu’s Parliamentary representation.”
The southern States have been opposing the population-based criteria for the redrawing of constituencies, which was last done on the basis of 1971 Census data. In a series of posts on X, the MHA added that the Census was originally planned to be conducted in 2021 and all preparations for this had been completed. “However, due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic across the country, the Census work was postponed. The aftershock of Covid-19 continued for quite some time,” it said.
The Ministry added that all sectors, including education, were disrupted by the pandemic. “Around 30 lakh enumerators are needed for Census. Enumerators, who are primary school teachers, are key persons for conducting Census. Conducting Census after Covid could have disrupted primary education immensely,” the Ministry said.
It added: “Countries which conducted Census immediately after Covid-19 faced issues on quality and coverage of Census data.” It further clarified that budgets have never been a constraint for the Census, as funding is always ensured by the Union government.
(Manas Dasgupta)
