Who’s in and who’s out to mark the census in J&K- Hindustan Times

• Who’s in and who’s out to mark the census in J&K- Hindustan Times

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  • Arun Joshi,
  • On Saturday, when the census operations will start in Jammu and Kashmir, an ever haunting question of who should be in or out would haunt the enumerators.
     
    They are supposed to include every one who has stayed in  any part of the state for the past six months, whether the native citizen of Jammu and Kashmir or not, but the separatists want them to exclude “outsiders.”
     
    Separatists’ stake is in projecting Jammu and Kashmir as a Muslim majority state with a huge margin.
  • The census in Jammu and Kashmir will be in two phases .
     
    First  phase that will begin on Saturday would be house listing and national population register. In the second phase, the enumerators would count the people in February 2011.
     
    There will be a headcount of one and all in the state, whether state subjects – citizens of Jammu and Kashmir having the right to vote, purchase of immovable property  and  getting jobs into the state government services- and all others who have stayed  at a particular place for the past six months.
  • Geelani, who was taken into custody in Srinagar on Friday afternoon, when contacted on his mobile  phone , told Hindustan Times that  “ this would be a clear design to reduce the Muslim majority character of the state, and we would resist it by all means, including agitations . How can they count 3-4 lakh Bihari migrants as population of this state.”

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