Parliament Questions: No Plan to Release 2011 Caste Census Data, Says Govt

New Delhi: The government has no plans to release at this stage the caste data collected under the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011, Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai also said that the Central government has not enumerated caste-wise population other than SCs and STs in census since Independence.

He said the SECC 2011, excluding the caste data, has been finalised and published by the Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the SECC reports are available on the portal "http:ecc.gov.in/".

“As informed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, there is no proposal to release the caste data at this stage,” he said replying to a written question.

Census 2021 Delay

Replying to another question on delay of Census 2021 and its possible adverse impact on implementation of welfare schemes, the minister said the population projection of the country and states and Union Territories for 2011-2036, based on Census 2011 data, are available in the Report of the Technical Group on Population Projections published by National Commission on Population, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

He said the intent of the government for conducting Census 2021 was notified in the Gazette of India on March 28, 2019.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the Census 2021 and the related field activities have been postponed until further orders, he said.

8 PSUs to Surrender 11 Coal Mines

Eight public sector companies have submitted requests to surrender 11 non-operational coal mines under an amnesty scheme, Parliament was informed on Monday.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said that till date, the government has received requests for surrender of 11 coal blocks allotted to three Central PSUs and five state PSUs following the policy being issued.

 "Ministry of Coal has issued an amnesty scheme in May 2022 granting one-time window to allottee government companies to surrender non-operational coal mines without penalty," Joshi explained.

The government had earlier allowed the PSUs to surrender non-operational mines without giving any reason.

The government had said that the move would release several coal mines which the PSU allottees were not in a position to develop or were disinterested and could be auctioned as per the auction policy.

It had granted three months' time to the allottee government companies to surrender the coal mines from the date of publication of the approved surrender policy.

As of December 2021, 45 out of the 73 mines allotted to PSUs remained non-operational.

The delays were due to reasons beyond the control of allottees, for example, law and order issues; enhancement in the area of forest from what was declared earlier; resistance of land-holders against land acquisition; geological surprises in terms of availability of coal resources.

Maximum Delayed Projects in Road Transport, Highways Sector

Road transport and highways sector has the maximum number of delayed projects at 301 followed by railways segment at 127 and petroleum sector at 91, the government said on Monday.

 "The top 3 sectors with the maximum delayed projects are road transport and highways- out of 843 projects 301 projects are delayed, railways- out of 211 projects 127 projects are delayed and petroleum- out of 139 projects 91 projects are delayed," Minister of State for Statistics Rao Inderjit Singh in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division (IPMD) is mandated to monitor central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above based on the information provided on Online Computerised Monitoring System (OCMS) by the project implementing agencies.

IPMD comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

As on June 1, 2022, 1,568 central sector infrastructure projects with anticipated completion cost of Rs 26,54,818.05 crore were on the OCMS. Out of the 1,568 projects, 721 projects were delayed and the cost overrun stood at Rs 3,28,126.34 crore, the minister said.

 Bangalore-Satyamangalam rail line project was the most delayed one and was delayed by 312 months, according to the written reply.

Muneerabad-Mahaboobnagar rail project was delayed by 276 months while  Udhampur-SrinagarBaramulla rail project was delayed by 245 months.

As per the data provided by the minister, among the top 20 delayed projects, 12 were of the railways.

 The main reasons for increase in time of the projects include law and order problems, delay in land acquisition, environment and forest clearances, and funding constraints, according to the written reply.

The top five entities involved in development of projects worth Rs 150 crore and above are Dilip Buildcon (33), G R Infraprojects (28), Ashoka Buildcon (21), PNC Infratech (19) and Gawar Construction (18).

Crude Sunflower Oil Imports Fell 23% in Feb-Jun

In the wake of Russia-Ukraine crisis, India's crude sunflower oil imports fell by 23% to 5.70 lakh tonne between February 21 and June 30 of this year, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, in his written reply to the Lok Sabha, said the major countries from which India imports sunflower oil are Ukraine, Russia and Argentina.

"Since February 21, 2022, to June 30, 2022, 5.70 lakh tonne of crude sunflower oil has been imported in the country as against import of 7.39 lakh tonne during the corresponding period in the previous year," Tomar said.

The minister was responding to a query if there was any impact on sunflower oil import due to recent instability in Ukraine and Russia.

Tomar said the country imported 20.45 lakh tonne of crude sunflower oil during 2021-22 fiscal, slightly lower than 21.75 lakh tonne in the previous year.

Newsprint Import Dipped 50%

Import of newsprint dipped 50% during COVID-19 years as compared to 2018-19, according to data shared by the government in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

In a written reply to a question, Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said the newspaper industry had imported 13,84,056 kg of newsprint in 2017-18, which declined to 6,48,620 kg in 2020-21, a drop of nearly 46%.

The import of newsprint further declined to 5,97,766 kg in 2021-22, Thakur said in response to a question by YSR Congress Party member Margani Bharat.

According to the data given by the government, the newspaper industry imported 12,96,300 kg of newsprint in 2018-19, and marginally increased to 12,96,354 kg in 2019-20.

Thakur said earlier, Basic Customs Duty (BCD) rate of 10% was imposed on newsprint, which was subsequently reduced from to 5% with effect from February 2, 2020.

The minister said representations were received from the newspaper industry for reduction/exemption from custom duties on newsprint which were examined by the Ministry of Finance.

In reply to a separate question, Thakur said revenue receipts by the ministry are by way of fees paid by television channels, DTH operators, and private FM channels, which have witnessed a slowdown in the last two years due to Covid and other factors.