Centre Dissolves Standing Committee On Statistics, Oppn Hits Back

Citing the issue of overlap in work, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has dissolved the Standing Committee on Statistics (SCoS). The 14-member committee was headed by the former chief statistician of the country Pronab Sen. As per the ministry, the committee’s work overlapped with that of the Steering Committee for National Sample Surveys.

The dissolved committee was formed in July 2023 and the roles were to advise the central government to finalise a tabulation plan for surveys as well as on survey methodology which includes sampling frame and sampling designs.

To look into the survey-related issues of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), the ministry formed the Steering committee for NSS as recommended by the National Statistical Commission (NSC). The chairman of NSC Rajeeva Laxman Karandikar heads the steering committee.

The Centre’s decision to dissolve the committee invited criticism from the opposition as Congress alleged that the Centre had quietly dissolved the committee as its members were asking the government regarding the delay in the decennial census.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh took to X (formerly Twitter) and wrote, “And for what? Simply for repeatedly asking the Govt why the decennial Census last due in 2021 has still not been conducted thereby, among other things, denying at least 10 crore Indians of ration benefits under National Food Security Act 2013/ PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.”

The Centre, on the other hand, stated that the decision to dissolve the committee was taken due to the overlapping of the panel’s work with the Steering Committee’s work. The recently dissolved panel had around half a dozen meetings and issues concerning the lack of holding a census and sampling figures were discussed during such meets.