Jammu May 5: Chairman of National Panthers Party, Prof Bhim Singh, on Wednesday    
 called on the political parties to take a collective stand on the “irregularities” in the Census 2010 process.
 Addressing a news conference here, Singh expressed serious concern over the deletion of important subjects, including religion, language, demography and migration, from the columns of the Census performa.
 Terming the irregularities as a “constitutional fraud,” Singh said that omitting language from the Census would result in the disappearing of cultural and linguistic identities of hundreds of millions of the citizens. 
 The Census, he said, had no column to ascertain the nationality of the person whose census is taken nor about his religion or language, which shall defeat the very purpose of taking Census.
 He further criticized the government for deputing the officials of Education department for the Census operation. “ It will hamper the education system in the state. Nearly 26 lakh teachers will attend the work for nearly six months leaving thousands of schools unattended,” he said, adding, “This clearly means that half of the schools in Jammu and Kashmir will remain shut due to the deputation of the teachers in Census operations.”
 Nearly Rs 6000 crores would be wasted for no purpose and the Census shall only be conducted for the SC and ST and the housing facilities, he noted.
 He called on all political parties and social organizations to study the subject and take a collective decision whether this kind of Census would serve any purpose.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 5 May 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 5 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 6 May 2010 00:00:00 IST