Census in Maoist zones difficult, say Chhattisgarh officials

RAIPUR - A headcount of people in Bijapur and Dantewada districts will be highly difficult due to the presence of Maoist rebels in the interiors of the region, Chhattisgarh officials have told the census authorities.

Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India (RGCCI) C. Chandramouli held a video-conference with top authorities in the restive Bastar region Monday about conducting the second phase of census starting Feb 9.

But he got discouraging inputs from the collectors of Bijapur and Dantewada who told him the “headcount will be extremely difficult because of Maoists monopoly in forested interiors”.

The collectors of Narayanpur, Kanker and Bastar districts have, however, assured Chandramouli that despite a severe Maoist problem in the interiors, the census would be carried out successfully.

The enumerators will visit each house Feb 9-28 to count each person and get all details of the individual such as name, age, marital status, religion, whether belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and literacy status.

The sprawling 40,000 sq km Bastar region is made up of five districts - Dantewada, Bijapur, Kanker, Bastar and Narayanpur - where Maoists have run a parallel government in vast forested interiors since the late 1980s.

The region has witnessed a series of deadly attacks by Maoists in the past five years, including the massacre of 76 troopers in April last year in Dantewada district.