Three lakh people ‘migrated’ from district in 5 years

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 4

If sources are to be believed, then around 3 lakh people have migrated from the city in the last five years. The 13 per cent dip reported in the district population in the last five years has shocked the officials. This is reported to be the first ever population dip reported in the district since the first census was held here in 1871. 

Recently, the district administration carried out the exercise of seeding Aadhaar with that of the National population Register (NPR). The officials, while filling the Enumeration Booklets (EBs ) of the NPR with Aadhaar details, could only locate around 17.88 lakh people living in the district. 

As the population of the district was reported to be 22.81 lakh during 2011 census, a dip of 3 lakh was reported in the last five years. 

Sources said even after visiting repeatedly, the teams could not locate the missing 3 lakh people in the district and reported ‘migration’ to other countries as a major cause for the dip. 

When contacted, Girish Dayalan, the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), confirmed the fact but said there seemed to be an error on part of the surveying teams. “They may have mistakenly written ‘locked houses’ under ‘migrated out’ category,” he said. 

Dayalan further said the district administration was probing the matter and had put various high-level officers on duty to randomly check at least three NPRs under their individual jurisdiction. 

Population figures play a major role in the allocation of grants and deciding the constituency areas in a district. 

With a dip of around 3 lakh people, the district is going to lose a major chunk of grant it would receive through various Union and state government projects and also through the13th Finance Commission.