Chidambaram rues ‘death’ of National Statistical Commission

Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday lamented the "death" of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), calling it a "venerable institution" which succumbed to the Centre's "malicious negligence".

"We mourn the death of the NSC and remember with gratitude its valiant fight to release untainted GDP data and employment data,” Chidambaram said.

"One more venerable institution died on January 29, 2019 owing to malicious negligence by the government," the Congress leader tweeted while wishing for its re-birth in another tweet.

Though not officially dead, the Commission was set back by two independent members on Monday, including its Chairman, who tendered their resignation citing delay in implementing their GDP-related decisions and sidelining of other important matters.

According to media reports, P.C. Mohanan, who was serving as Chairman of NSC, and Delhi School of Economics professor J.V. Meenakshi sent their resignation letters to the Statistics Ministry on Monday.

As per the reports, the two members were not happy over the delay in the launch of the new economic census and in publishing the employment-unemployment report for 2016-17 despite the Commission's approval.