Chandigarh, May 20 -- The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) on Tuesday took cognisance of the use of casteist words in the official list prepared for the upcoming nationwide decadal counting operations, issuing a notice to Navjot Khosa, the director of census operations for Punjab. The commission sought an action-taken report within 15 days from the director of census operations for Punjab, and the principal secretary of the department of social justice, empowerment and minorities. This intervention follows widespread public outrage and protests led by farm and rural labour bodies in Punjab, including the Dehati Mazdoor Sabha and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Sabha, who discovered an offensive, derogatory term embedded within the online caste-selection column of the self-enumeration form. "The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has taken cognisance of the use of casteist words in the official list prepared for the upcoming Census operations and has issued a notice in this regard to the Director, Census Operations, Punjab and the Principal Secretary, Department of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of Punjab," the notice said. The complaint was submitted by Hardeep Singh Gill, vice-chairperson of the national commission for safai karamcharis. The controversial portal, which went live for citizens on April 30 as part of the first phase of the digitised national counting exercise, has drawn flak from community leaders who allege that the inclusion of such language indicates a deeply rooted caste bias within sections of the bureaucracy responsible for designing official state documents. In its directive to the directorate of census operations, the apex statutory body has demanded an immediate, comprehensive explanation regarding the oversight, while agitated labour unions continue to press both the central and state administrations for swift punitive action against the drafting officials and the immediate expunging of the offensive vocabulary from the nationwide data-collection framework. Acknowledging the notice, Khosa said the department was currently preparing a report on the issue. "The detailed report will be submitted within the next two days," she said. Meanwhile, the Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission on Tuesday also urged the NCSC and the Centre to remove derogatory caste terminology....