Meghalaya: Move to bring back violence hit people before Census

Thousands of people displaced in the recent ethnic riots along the Assam-Meghalaya border are yet to return to their native places, but Census officials said the administrations were trying to bring them back for enumeration.

Shillong: Thousands of people displaced in
the recent ethnic riots along the Assam-Meghalaya border are
yet to return to their native places, but Census officials
said the administrations were trying to bring them back for
enumeration beginning February 9.
Meghalaya Census Operations director KL Tariang today
said the administrations of Meghalaya?s East Garo Hills and
Assam?s Goalpara district are taking steps to bring back the
displaced people before the headcount was undertaken.

Some 50,000 people were displaced in the 9-day ethnic
riots last month in which 12 people were killed and over 2,000
houses torched.

Officials said over 6,000 people who have fled from
Meghalaya to Assam in the wake of the riots were yet to
return, while a few hundred of them from Assam had taken
shelter in relief camps in Meghalaya.
In the second phase of the Census, 5688 enumerators
and 995 supervisors will carry out the headcount in Meghalaya
and the revision round slated for March 1-5.

On illegal migrants, Tariang said, "It is not possible
for us to identify the illegal migrants. But the Centre is
planning to have a National Population Register (NPR). It will
come at a later stage. This exercise may help identify the
illegal migrants."

PTI

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