Guwahati, May 29 : Enumerators of the 2011 census had to return disappointed from at least 12 villages in Assam as villagers there refused to provide them with details during the House Listing and Housing Census, the first phase of the country’s biggest exercise.
Courtesy to Assam’s inter-state border disputes with its neighboring states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. Census officials in Guwahati said the villagers in at least 12 villages located at disputed border areas boycotted the census officials from Assam even as they had taken part in the 2001 census.
The first phase of 2011 Census ended on May 15 and like other parts of the country enumerators visited every house hold in the state to collect data about house listing. About 65 thousand enumerators and 11 thousand supervisors have been engaged in collection of household data in the state.
“Our enumerators visited every house hold in both urban and rural areas, but people in at least 12 villages refused to provide us details as the villages are situated on the disputed areas. We have already informed the state government about the development,” said a senior official of Census directorate (Assam).
The villages that boycotted Census enumerators from Assam are situated in the districts of Kamrup (rural), Golaghat and Cachar bordering Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. The latest are the people at five villages at Langpih situated on the disputed Assam-Meghalaya boundary which witnessed violent clashes recently. Four people died and at least 12 others were injured in Assam Police firing following a violent clash in the disputed Langpih, situated about 70-kilometers from here bordering Assam’s Kamrup (rural) district and West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.
“Even as villagers boycotted enumerators from Assam it did not affect the census exercise because they provided the household details to the enumerators from their preferred state,” the official pointed out.
The first phase of the 2011 census completed on May 15 and the second phase, called the Population Enumeration phase, will be conducted February 9 next year.
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