1st phase of Census 2021 from May 15, says Director

Tribune News Service

Nawanshahr, March 12

“The 2021 Census will be conducted in two phases, from May 15 (houselisting) to June 29 and from February 9 next year to February 28 (counting of individuals),” said Abhishek Jain, Director (Census), Punjab, while presiding over a two-day training program of charge officers of Nawanshahr district on Thursday.

He said the training programmes would be organised at every district headquarter in the state. “After training charge officers, field staff will be trained,” he said. Throwing light upon the history of Census operations in the country, Jain said the first-ever Census of the country was conducted in 1872.

He said the Census operations beginning from May 15 would be conducted digitally. A special software has been designed by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner that can work without the Internet. To promote digital data collection, honourarium of Rs 25,000 would be given to the enumerators while Rs 17,500 would be given to those who follow the manual procedure.

Tehsildars have been designated as charge officers of rural areas under their jurisdiction while executive officers of Municipal Councils would be charge officers for urban areas. Besides this, each one enumerator would count 150 houses (800 to 1,000 population) and six enumerators would be monitored by a supervisor.

Jain said for supervising the Census operations, a portal named Central Management and Monitoring System has been set up. It will monitor the online progress of each employee on engaged in Census duty.