Special census for KBK region demanded

The Pioneer, April 30, 2010
Bikash Khemka, Bhawanipatna

A national census awareness campaign was organised here by Masiha Bichar Manch-Kalahandi,a society, that was inaugurated by District Collector RS Gopalan on Wednesday.

The campaign was held amid a gathering of thousands of people at Sapduhuni village of Baddharpur gram panchayat under Narla block. The manch would mainly emphasise on census awareness where a committee would be formed with the help of its volunteers starting from villages to GPs and than block level who would monitor all the day to day activities.

Initially, it would campaign in Kalahandi and Nuapada and subsequently it will start in other districts of Odisha. This society has taken the initiative of National census awareness with its own funding. Besides this, it has determined to take up local issue where the basic needs would be submitted before the district administration by the organisation. On its inaugural day, it submitted a ten-point charter of demands to the Collector on major problems of Narla block. A weekly newspaper Masiha editor Sunil Naik said to The Pioneer that he hopes the census awareness drive in village areas would basically help the enumerators to record correct data.

Chief speaker Nayak demanded a special KBK census here as most of the migrant labourers from KBK districts migrate to outside States for their livelihood. He said that the special census in KBK region would help in getting accurate records of the migrants in the Government database.

The chairman of the Manch, Subash Chandra Nayak (former MP) said the awareness campaign in villages would largely facilitate the national census. Among others, ADM Chudamani Seth, Sub-Collector Nanda Kishore Sethi, Narla BDO Bhagbana Behera, M Rampur, tehasildar Sarat Chandra Srichandan and BJD leaders participated in the meeting.