Count only state subjects in Census -- Soz

Count only state subjects in Census -- Soz
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

SRINAGAR, SEPT 13: Former Union minister Prof Saifuddin Soz today asked the Government to count only state subjects to ensure a clean and credible census in Jammu and Kashmir.

``It is a very delicate matter,'' he told mediapersons here. ``I want the Government of India and the state government to think about what went wrong in the past census and correct the `maneuvered' trend in the fall of the population of the majority community (Muslims) in the state.''

He said the Census Act does not restrict the census to the count of state subjects alone. ``But if it did so, the Act should be amended through an ordinance,'' Prof Soz said.

Calling all earlier census reports ``unrealistic'', Soz compared the rates of growth of Muslim and Hindu communities in various districts of Jammu. ``As per the 1981 Census report, in Doda district, the growth rate of Hindus is 47.23 percent while that of Muslims is 11.97 per cent. In Udhampur it is 45 per cent for Hindus and 6.35 per cent for Muslims. In Kathua it is 39.31 per cent for Hindus while it is 14.57 per cent for Muslims,'' he said, mentioning Rajouri and Jammu districts also where the trend was similar. ``How could the Hindu community mark such a steep rise in their rate ofpopulation growth and Muslims fall below the state's average growth rate of population?'' Soz asked.

``Did Muslims adopt family planning and score a march over other communities? Did any natural calamity occur during these decades especially to deal with Muslim community,'' he demanded.

Soz said the only credible census was the one held in 1987 but which never saw the light of day. ``In 1987, a strict count of state subjects was taken in order to find the people who deserved to be listed as Scheduled Castes or Schedule Tribes. That census could have assumed historic importance if the figures had been released and documents made public,'' he said.

Soz further claimed that during the '87 Census, the growth rate of Muslims was 4.21 per cent while that of Hindus was 2.68 per cent. ``I was amazed when the Registrar General refused to make that census public,'' Soz said. ``Even then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had sent a letter asking for publication of the census report of 1987 which was never returned,'' hesaid.