Bengal census to begin from August 1
Kolkata, May 29
West Bengal Chief Minister said on Friday that the census will start from August 1, while asserting that the late beginning of the process had been due to the lackadaisical approach of the previous Mamata Banerjee-led government.
"The Union Government sent a communique to the previous state government in February last year to begin the process. But the previous state Cabinet did not act based on that communique. The previous state government did not even bother to reply to the communique from the Union government. The previous state government did not start the work because of narrow political reasons. The previous Chief Secretary was waiting for a political consensus on the matter. Since the previous government did not do anything in the matter, the West Bengal government is lagging behind other states on this count," CM Adhikari told mediapersons after an emergency meeting on this issue at the state secretariat of Nabanna on Friday, which he chaired.
However, the Chief Minister said that the new state government led by him is trying its best to bridge the gap and be at par with other states on this count at the earliest.
"In our first Cabinet meeting on May 11, we decided to start the census exercise in the state at the earliest. The exercise will start from August 1 this year and will continue till February next year," the Chief Minister said.
He also said that the census operations this time will be conducted digitally, with census officials collecting data on their mobile phones, for which a separate app will be launched.
"The collected data will be uploaded to the central server through that app," the Chief Minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, CM Adhikari also said that politics should not have been mixed with the census exercise.
"A constitutional obligation is involved in such exercises. So far, there have not been any barbed fences over 500 kilometres of border land with Bangladesh in West Bengal. That is precisely why there has been a major change in the demography of the border areas in West Bengal because of illegal infiltration. That is why the census is very important for West Bengal, although there is no official link between the census and illegal infiltration," the Chief Minister said.
— IANS
Reader Comments
The comment about illegal infiltration and border fencing is concerning. Census data should be about planning for development - schools, hospitals, roads. Not about singling out communities. We've seen how demographic data can be weaponized elsewhere. I hope this is purely administrative.
Finally some action! We've been waiting years for proper census in Bengal. The digital approach is welcome - no more lost forms and manual errors. But what about areas with poor internet connectivity? The state government must ensure doorstep enumeration with offline backup systems.
As someone from the border districts, I appreciate CM acknowledging the demographic changes. But linking census to infiltration without evidence is irresponsible. Let's collect data first, then draw conclusions. Also, politics aside, this delay has hurt development funds allocation for Bengal.
The Chief Minister is right about one thing - census is a constitutional duty, not a political football. Both previous and current governments need to put Bengal first. Digital system sounds good but needs robust data protection. We don't want another data leak fiasco!
I'm cautiously optimistic. The August timeline seems ambitious given the scale of Bengal. Hope they deploy enough enumerators and train them well. Also, the 'illegal infiltration' narrative worries me - let's not make census a tool for exclusion. Every person in Bengal deserves to be counted.
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