Govt to give legislative backing to National Statistical Commission

NSC does not have any member at present after its acting chairman PC Mohanan and member JV Meenakshi resigned in January over allegedly being sidelined on key statistical decisions

The government is working on giving legislative backing to  the National Statistical Commission (NSC), from where all members resigned earlier this year. 

"Efforts are on to evolve a legislative framework under which the NSC may function with independence and give holistic guidance for improving the national statistical system encompassing MoSPI, the line ministries and the state governments," an official statement said here on Monday.

In its present form, the NSC is an executive body. The body does not have any member at present after its acting chairman PC Mohanan and member JV Meenakshi resigned in January over allegedly being sidelined on key statistical decisions and withholding of the periodic labour force survey 2017-18 results. The government is yet to reconstitute the body.

NSC was established in 2005 on the recommendations of the Rangarajan committee. However, the panel had recommended setting up of the NSC as a statutory body reporting directly to Parliament. 

Earlier, the government had decided to merge National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) and Central Statistics Office (CSO) to set up National Statistics Office (NSO).

This had raised doubts over the role of NSC,  which was envisaged as a governing council of the NSO in the original decision taken during the United Progressive Alliance government in 2005.

The clarification today enforced the importance of NSC.