No plans to bring census into concurrent list: Govt

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The government has no plans to bring the census into the concurrent list and allow state governments to conduct the census, Union Minister Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Rai, Union minister of state for home, also said that due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the Census 2021 and the related field activities have been postponed indefinitely.

"There is no such proposal,” Rai replied to a question of DMK MP from Tamil Nadu Ravikumar D, who asked whether there is any proposal to bring the census into concurrent list and allow state governments to do the census and if so, the details thereof.

The concurrent list consists of subjects of common interest to both the Union and the states. Both the Parliament and the state legislatures can make laws in subjects which are in the concurrent list.

When asked whether the government is going to conduct decadal census enumeration this year, the minister said, "The intent of the government for conducting Census 2021 was notified in Gazette of India on 28th March, 2019. Due to outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the Census 2021 and the related field activities have been postponed”.