A joint forum of NGOs from Jaintia Hills district today dashed a letter to the Chief Secretary W M S Pariat asking him to re-conduct the Census operation survey in the state.
"All surveys of the Census 2011 operation should be stopped," T Ltep, Chairman of the Jaiñtia NGOs Forum (JNF), told reporters claiming the forum detected the anomaly late. He said "the Census should be re-conducted in the state whereby the Jaintias (consisting of Pnars, Bhois and Wars) tribe should be included." Ltep said "there are no 'Jaiñtias' in the state but only a Synteng tribe (the nickname of Jaiñtia tribe) in both 1991 and 2001 Census."
"In view of this, we demand surveys of Census 2011 be stopped immediately and the Census operations should be re-conducted whereby the Jaintias (Pnars, Bhois, Wars) tribe should be included," the JNF said.
Meghalaya boasts of three major tribes- the Khasis, Jaiñtias and the Garos. The JNF claimed in the past two census operations, there was no mention of Jaintias in the state.