Kolkata, May 29: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari announced on Friday that the census will commence on August 1. He attributed the delay in the process to the previous government’s lax approach under Mamata Banerjee.
During an emergency meeting at the Nabanna state secretariat, CM Adhikari stated, “The central government sent a message last February to the previous state government to initiate the process, but no action was taken. The former state cabinet neither acted on nor responded to that message. Political reasons halted this work. The then Chief Secretary was waiting for political consensus. The previous government took no steps, causing West Bengal to lag behind other states in this process.”
He emphasized that the new state government is committed to bridging this gap and aligning with other states as soon as possible.
The Chief Minister mentioned, “In our first cabinet meeting on May 11, we decided to start the census work at the earliest. This will begin on August 1 and continue until February next year.”
He also revealed that this census will be conducted digitally, with census officials collecting data via mobile phones. A dedicated app will be launched for this purpose.
“The collected data will be uploaded to a central server through this app,” the Chief Minister added.
On this occasion, CM Suvendu Adhikari stressed that politics should not interfere in the census process.
He remarked, “Such processes involve constitutional responsibilities. Until now, over 500 kilometers of the border with Bangladesh in West Bengal has not been fenced. This has led to significant demographic changes in border areas due to illegal immigration, making the census crucial for West Bengal. However, there is no official link between the census and illegal immigration.”
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