Parliament passes Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017

The parliament has passed The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017 after it was approved by the Rajya Sabha. The Lok Sabha has passed it earlier.
The bill aims at amending the Collection of Statistics Bill, 2008, which facilitates the collection of statistics related to social, economic, demographic, scientific and environmental aspects, by central, state and local governments. It also allows the appointment of statistics officers to collect information and contains provisions to ensure security of information.

Salient features of bill

Jurisdiction of the 2008 Act: The Bill extends jurisdiction of the parent act to the state Jammu and Kashmir for the collection of statistics pertaining to subjects under the Union (List-I) or the Concurrent list (List-II) of the Constitution. These subjects include citizenship, banking, education, labour and forests as applicable to J&K.
Nodal officer: It adds provisions for the appointment of a nodal officer by the Union or state government. The function of nodal officer is to coordinate and supervise statistical activities under the government which has appointed him. Further, the Union government can also determine the powers and duties of the nodal officer.
Use of information:  The Bill removes provision from parent act dealing with information collected under it only is used for statistical purposes. It also allows the Union government to determine the manner in which such information collected will be used for statistical purposes.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017