Guwahati: Guwahati: The Centre on Saturday formally deferred the house-listing operations for Census 2027 in Manipur, with the Registrar General of India’s (RGI) office under the Union ministry of home affairs issuing a gazette notification to this effect.The notification now gives formal effect to the Centre’s decision taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday. The house-listing exercise was deferred amid mass demand by civil societies for implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) first before using the 1951 census-era baseline as the base document before the Census 2027.Most civil society organisations have argued that this would help establish a verified citizenship database and address concerns over undocumented migration.The notification issued under the Census Act, 1948, amends the Jan 7 notification for the country-wide census and exempts Manipur from the house-listing schedule “till further declaration”. The exercise was scheduled to begin in the state from Sept 1.On Jan 7, the RGI’s office notified the first phase of census, which includes house-listing operations across India.The development came against the backdrop of proceedings in the Manipur high court, which on Monday directed that the house-listing exercise be kept in abeyance. The court subsequently kept the exercise on hold until the next hearing on Oct 12.The Manipur legislative assembly on Sept 2 unanimously reaffirmed its earlier resolutions of Aug 5, 2022, and March 1, 2024, and urged the Centre to implement NRC before the census.The Campaign for Just and Fair Delimitation (JFD), which is spearheading the demand for an NRC before the census, on Saturday announced a “People’s Voice” programme from 7pm to 8pm on Sunday. Participants will raise slogans including “No NRC, No Census” and “NRC Base Year Must Be 1951”.It also demanded a definite timeline for the NRC, a comprehensive White Paper, and the proper reconstitution and functioning of the State Population Commission.
