Noorul Hassan, a social worker based in Kshetrigao in Manipur, has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Supreme Court challenging the Centre on the delimitation exercise in Manipur.

It may be mentioned here that the delimitation exercise in Manipur was suggested based on data published of the Census 2001.

Speaking to the media, Hassan on Tuesday said, "The Centre went ahead with the delimitation exercise in Manipur without correcting the data."

"For this reason, I have decided to file the PIL in the Supreme Court," Hasan added.

He further said that the exercise violated the fundamental and constitutional rights of the people of Manipur.

In the PIL Hasan further requested the Centre to authenticate the 2001 census data first before it goes ahead with the delimitation exercise.

The 2001 census data is mostly forged, manipulated, and bogus, Hasan further alleged.

"Of the total population of Manipur, 60 per cent lives in the four valley districts," Hasan said.

"Moreover, 40 per cent of the state's population lives in the five hill districts and this comprises of 24 per cent Naga tribes and 16 per cent of Kuki-Zo tribes)," Hasan said.

"The extent of manipulation can be gauged from the fact that in the nine subdivisions of the hill districts, the population growth rate was reported to be over and above the average population growth rate for Manipur at 30 per cent and the variation was in the range of 41 per cent to 169 per cent," the Imphal Free Press reported quoting Hasan.

He further said that there was after it was revealed that "such manipulated data" would be utilized for the demarcation of territorial constituencies for state assembly and parliamentary elections.

He also said that if the delimitation exercise is carried forth without changing the data, then it will likely transfer a few constituencies from the thickly populated Manipur valley districts to the sparsely populated hill districts.