Imphal: Fourteen civil society organisations (CSOs) in Manipur have threatened to enforce a statewide shutdown from midnight on August 9, accusing the state government of failing to act on their long-pending demand to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) before the national Census.
The organisations announced the proposed shutdown during a press conference held at the IPSA office in Keishampat, where convenor Nahakpam Shanta criticised the government for what he described as its continued inaction.
Shanta said the Manipur Legislative Assembly had passed resolutions on August 5, 2022, and March 1, 2024, calling for the establishment of a State Population Commission and the updating of the NRC. He noted that although the government had earlier assured the organisations that an expert seminar on the NRC would be held in early August, no official notification has been issued so far.
The CSOs have given the state government until August 8 to organise the promised workshop involving legal experts and NRC specialists. They warned that if the upcoming national Census is conducted before the NRC is updated, illegal immigrants could be included in the population records and eventually recognised as Indian citizens.
The organisations said the duration of the proposed shutdown would be decided at a review meeting scheduled for the evening of August 8.
The CSOs maintained that the NRC must be updated before the Census begins to identify illegal immigrants and address demographic concerns before house-listing and population enumeration activities are carried out.