News Analysis India

Tag: Rohingyas

  • Caste-wise census to start in Bihar by Oct end as BJP flags its concern over Rohingyas, Bangladeshis

    Express News Service

    PPATNA: Amid BJP’s concerns over Rohingyas and Bangladeshis being counted, Bihar government will launch the process for caste-wise census by the end of October, late nearly by a month.

    The delay in conducting caste-based census as well as economic enumeration has been caused in view of the possibility of civic body elections in the state due for September-October. 

    On the other hand, administrative preparations are in full swing to conduct the caste-based census in the state. The Bihar government has given the task of conducting caste-based census to the General Administration Department. 

    ​The District Magistrate of the concerned district has been appointed as the nodal officer for conducting the caste-based census at the district level. All castes and sub-castes of all religions will be counted during the cumberson exercise.

    The Bihar government has allocated Rs 500 crore for conducting the caste-based census and has fixed the target of completing the work by February next year. 

    The provision of this money will be made from the Bihar Contingency Fund. Leaders of various parties in the Vidhan Sabha will be apprised of the progress of the census from time to time. After completion of the exercise, schemes will be formulated on the socio-economic condition of various castes.

    Bihar government has decided to conduct caste-based census in both offline as well as online modes. For conducting the caste-based census in the online mode, the general administration department is also developing a mobile app and it is expected that the app would be ready by the end of this month.

    The caste-based census was conducted last time in 1931. Later, caste-based data was also collected during the census in 1941 but the data was not made public. Socio-economic-caste census (SECC) was conducted in 2011 too but the caste data was not released.

    Bihar cabinet had passed the proposal in June to conduct the caste-based census in the state but then Nitish`s party, JD (U), was part of BJP. After political realignment in the state, it will be interesting to see how BJP responds when the process for caste-based census begins. BJP had agreed to the caste basedcensus in the state after showing much reluctance for it. BJP central leadership and even Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had clearly ruled out holding the enumeration of OBCs in 2021 census.

    Even as BJP agreed for caste-based census in Bihar, state party president Sanjay Jaiswal said the caste count should ensure Rohingyas and people did not participate in the exercise as a ‘cover for fake citizenship.

    PPATNA: Amid BJP’s concerns over Rohingyas and Bangladeshis being counted, Bihar government will launch the process for caste-wise census by the end of October, late nearly by a month.

    The delay in conducting caste-based census as well as economic enumeration has been caused in view of the possibility of civic body elections in the state due for September-October. 

    On the other hand, administrative preparations are in full swing to conduct the caste-based census in the state. The Bihar government has given the task of conducting caste-based census to the General Administration Department. 

    ​The District Magistrate of the concerned district has been appointed as the nodal officer for conducting the caste-based census at the district level. All castes and sub-castes of all religions will be counted during the cumberson exercise.

    The Bihar government has allocated Rs 500 crore for conducting the caste-based census and has fixed the target of completing the work by February next year. 

    The provision of this money will be made from the Bihar Contingency Fund. Leaders of various parties in the Vidhan Sabha will be apprised of the progress of the census from time to time. After completion of the exercise, schemes will be formulated on the socio-economic condition of various castes.

    Bihar government has decided to conduct caste-based census in both offline as well as online modes. For conducting the caste-based census in the online mode, the general administration department is also developing a mobile app and it is expected that the app would be ready by the end of this month.

    The caste-based census was conducted last time in 1931. Later, caste-based data was also collected during the census in 1941 but the data was not made public. Socio-economic-caste census (SECC) was conducted in 2011 too but the caste data was not released.

    Bihar cabinet had passed the proposal in June to conduct the caste-based census in the state but then Nitish`s party, JD (U), was part of BJP. After political realignment in the state, it will be interesting to see how BJP responds when the process for caste-based census begins. BJP had agreed to the caste based
    census in the state after showing much reluctance for it. BJP central leadership and even Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai had clearly ruled out holding the enumeration of OBCs in 2021 census.

    Even as BJP agreed for caste-based census in Bihar, state party president Sanjay Jaiswal said the caste count should ensure Rohingyas and people did not participate in the exercise as a ‘cover for fake citizenship.

  • 13 illegal Rohingya immigrants nabbed in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri

    By PTI

    JALPAIGURI: Thirteen people, alleged to be illegal Rohingya immigrants, were apprehended at the New Jalpaiguri railway station in north Bengal, police said. Among them were six children and two women, a senior police officer said.

    They had arrived at the New Jalpaiguri station in two groups from New Delhi and Jammu on Friday evening to catch a train to Assam when the Government Railway Police (GRP) spotted them, he said. After questioning, they were apprehended and a case filed under The Foreigners Act, he added. “They were on the way to Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, via Assam and Tripura,” the officer said.

  • India not a dharamshala; info about Rohingyas in state being gathered: Haryana minister Anil Vij

    By PTI
    AMBALA: Home Minister Anil Vij on Friday said information about Rohingyas living in Haryana was being gathered, adding that India was “not a dharamshala” that anyone could come and settle in the country.

    The remarks came days after authorities in Jammu sent 168 Rohingyas to jail after they were allegedly found living in the city illegally, officials had said.

    Many Rohingya refugees have settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and the National Capital Region, while some reports suggest their presence in Mewat, Haryana.

    “We are gathering information about them,” Vij told reporters.

    “Our country is not a dharamshala that anyone will get up and start living here if he so feels like,” Vij said.

    Incidentally, a plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking immediate release of the detained Rohingya refugees in Jammu and restrain the Centre from implementing any order deporting them.

    Meanwhile, asked about the surge in coronavirus cases, Vij, who also holds the health portfolio, said he directed strict enforcement of all COVID protocols in the state.

  • 168 Rohingyas living illegally in Jammu sent to jail: Officials

    Following persecution in their country, many of them entered India illegally through Bangladesh and took shelter in Jammu and other parts of India.

  • BJP alleges TRS hand in Rohingyas’ inclusion in Hyderabad voter lists

    A BJP delegation led by Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday met top officials of the Election Commission and submitted a memorandum alleging that names of Rohingya Muslims had been illegally included in the voter lists of 15 Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad in Telangana as part of a “joint conspiracy” of the ruling TRS along with AIMIM and the Congress.

    The BJP demanded a probe by the Commission.

    After the meeting, Naqvi told reporters that despite clear instructions of the Union Home Ministry that Rohingya Muslims are not Indian citizens, they have been registered as voters in Telangana. The delegation also included  general secretary Arun Singh and its national media head Anil  Baluni .

    “The registration of Rohingya Muslims as voters is a clear violation of laws of the land. The Election Commission may institute a special investigation team to probe the matter,” the BJP said in its memorandum to the Commission.

    Naqvi blamed the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Congress for inclusion of these names in the assembly constituencies in Hyderabad.

    “It is a combined conspiracy of TRS, AIMIM and Congress against the people of a particular religion,” he alleged.

    The party also demanded that electoral rolls of 15 assembly constituencies in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation be “rectified” before the assembly election, which is barely nine days away. Telangana is scheduled to go to polls on December 7.

    The BJP has also alleged that there has been an inordinate increase in number of voters and volatile fluctuations in their numbers. Eom