During the ongoing process of household census, more than half of Punjab has been dropped and left unlisted, as the Population Census Organisation with its insufficient and disorganised 30,084 enumerators have completely failed to ensure the complete coverage of each and every housing unit in Punjab in the given time, Punjabi Language Movement (PLM) convener Nazee Kahut, said on Friday during a press conference at the Lahore Press Club.
“Irregularities are being committed to reduce Punjab’s population at the end of the coming population census, which is bound to cause irreparable damage to Punjab’s national interests at the federal level and provincial level,” he said. Kahut said that household census in more than half of Punjab has been initiated either with shortage of staff or because of the intentions of reducing Punjab’s population.
Kahut said that the PLM demands the Population Census Organisation and federal authorities concerned to show to the world that when, where, how and by whom entire Punjab has been covered during the household census?
“The evidence reveals that all past censuses initiated in Punjab were linguistically engineered as they resulted in reducing the strength of Punjabi-speaking population from 67.08 to 44.15 percent. During the 1951 census, the Punjabi-speaking population was 67.08 percent.
During the 1961 census, it reduced to 66.39 percent and in the 1972 census, it was cut down to 66.11 percent but in the 1982 census, it was alarmingly slashed to 48.17 percent and finally in the 1998 census, the Punjabi-speaking population was pushed down to 44.05 percent,” Kahut said.