Lyonpo Minjur Dorji with the dzongdas

Dzongda’s Conference 7 March, 2010 - The government should review the cases of people, whose census were dropped after the nationwide census registration. Dzongdas voiced this concern during the 18th annual dzongdag’s conference, which began yesterday.

The dzongdas pointed out that census dropped-out cases occurred mainly because some people could not genuinely turn up while the census was carried out. They said that, while negligence was also a reason, ignorance of the people and officials involved in national census were also to be blamed for the dropout cases. Dzongdas said those in the armed force and private sector could not make it on time, while the census was carried out in their respective places, because of logistic and financial problems.

They said that, because of this, villagers face difficulty in getting their children admitted to schools, employment and necessary documents, such as citizenship identity card and passport. Dzongdas also proposed the census handbook 1993 be revised, so that the dropout problems could be solved. The handbook doesn’t allow dropout cases to be registered.

The home minister, Lyonpo Minjur Dorji said that census issues needed to be dealt case by case, as there were people who were producing fake documents. He, however, said that a subcommittee formed under the cabinet, called the cabinet sub-committee is reviewing the security clearance certificate and census related issues.

The minister said that there is also a separate committee in the home ministry to review census-related issues, as per the citizenship laws and national census record of the country. Wamrong in Trashigang has a lot of dropped out cases, according to Lyonpo. Home ministry officials are also collecting statistics of children in the country unable to register in census because of a missing parent. There were more than 200 cases of fatherless children in Zhemgang in 2008, for instance.

Dzongdas also inquired if there was a possibility of installing citizenship identity card printer in the dzongkhags and, if not, at least in the region. They said there was delay in issuing the identity card. The director of department of civil registration and census, Dorji Norbu, said the country was already running out of printers and installing a printer in the dzongkhags would be difficult with the given resources.

There are three printers bought from the United Kingdom, each costing Nu 4 million, and only two people were trained to operate and maintain them. Dorji Norbu said it was difficult to deliver identity cards quickly but assured that, with the security clearance service system made online, people can apply for citizenship and obtain it within a day, if all the required documents are submitted.