First consultative meeting of Think Tank held
Source: Chronicle News Service / DIPR

Imphal, September 04 2023: Undermining or ignoring the official publications on record since Manipur's merger to India, various experts have been publishing wrong information, which in turn is putting the integrity of the state as well as the national security of the country at stake, said Manipur advocate general Lenin Singh Hijam.

The First Consultative Meeting with the Think Tank (Panel of Experts) was organised by Manipur State Population Commission at Hotel Imphal, here, on Monday.

Inaugurating the meet as the chief guest, Lenin Hijam said that the government of India, at the time of the Merger, published a 'White Paper on the Indian States' in 1950, where it was clearly mentioned the size and the population of Manipur.

At the time of the merger on October 15, 1969, Manipur's total area was 8620 sq mile and total population 5.12 lakh officially.

Now, after more than 70 years of neglecting and forgetting the official publication, different groups and some so-called experts have infixed wrong information in books and other publications which affects the existence of the state and the raises concern of national security.

As such, he appealed to the panel of experts to diagnose the issue before com ing to a conclusion, while further stressing the need to discuss the causes/factors behind the population spike so as to prevent a repeat of the prevailing situation in the state in the future.

The advocate general also urged the media to first verify any information before publishing or else it could lead to misunderstandings.

If one is sick, the first step is to diagnose the ailment.

Similarly, the people will surely assist in the verification process, he said, while remarking that both the central and state governments have the power to solve the prevailing situation.

Delivering the keynote address, MSPC secretary Dr Mayengbam Veto said that after the ILPS was implemented in 2019, MSPC came into being.

At present, many are producing population data statistics from various sources to make claims or counter claims.

As such, the consultative meeting was organised to address the confusion of the masses through verification of the sources with university experts, academicians, historians and population history experts.

Informing that the Commission will cross reference the articles being published with the documents of previous census publication, historical records and archives, and submit the same to the government while also making it available in public domain; Dr Veto further said that the Commission will submit recommendations to the government with regard to published articles based on fake data, and which is likely to confuse the people and further cause socio political issues.

Participating in the meeting as functional president, commissioner (Home) T Ranjit Singh said that Manipur State Population Commission was set up on February 17, 2023.To look into the issue of illegal immigrants in the state, the government constituted a cabinet subcommittee comprising three ministers on February 16.Verification drives of illegal immigrants were conducted in the five districts bordering Myanmar.

Within a short period, more than 2000 illegal immigrants were identified and steps taken up by the government to provide shelter to these immigrants on humanitarian ground, he informed.

Regarding the population in the state, he mentioned that there is a sudden increase in the population of certain groups within the last 130 years.

According to 1881 census, the Meitei population was about 1.30 lakh which had increased to 12.50 lakh in 2011 census, while the Naga population has increased from 60,000 in 1881 Census to 6.04 lakh in 2011 census.

On the other hand, the population of Kuki-Mizo population which was only 17,000 in the 1881 census, has risen to 4.48 lakh in 2011 census.

He then expressed hope that the meeting will bring fair, workable, fruitful and realistic proposal to the Government after thorough discussion.

The programme was also attended by secretary to Governor Bobby Waikhom as special guest.

Moderated by MSPC State Population commissioner Dr Moirangthem Manimohan Meetei, experts and intellectuals from various fields and departments participated in the consultative sessions held under the topics/themes of 'Evolution of settlements and its inhabitants'; 'Administrative setups in the kingdom/state'; 'Estimated/hypothet-ical calculation of population before census'; 'Caste, tribe, race or nationality wise population as per census of India and their decadal growths'; 'Schedule tribe and schedule caste population'; 'Migration aS per census and state government records'; 'Ethnographic survey and its questionnaires'; 'Definition of aboriginal, indigenous and native population', and 'Framework preparation for Manipur Population Policy' .

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