New Delhi: A 14-member Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS) led by noted economist and former chief statistician of the country Pronab Sen has been dissolved by The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation allegedly after its members questioned the delay in conducting the census.
According to an email sent to the members by Geeta Singh Rathore, Director-General of the Ministry’s National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the reason for the committee being dissolved is that the its work overlapped with that of the recently formed Steering Committee for National Sample Surveys, reported The Hindu.
However, Sen, the committee’s head said that the members were not given any reason for dissolving the panel.
Sen added that, in the committee’s meetings, the members had raised the question that why the census has not been conducted yet.
The SCoS, which was formed in July 2023, was expected to advise the Union government on survey methodology, including sampling frame, sampling design, and survey instruments, and to finalise a tabulation plan of surveys, reported The Hindu.
While the census was due in 2021, it is yet to be notified, despite the fact that several experts have pointed out that in absence of updated data sets about the population, effective implementation government schemes and policies is being affected.
