Chief Secretary reviews preparations of Census 2021
KI Singh/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Punjab Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh on Tuesday reviewed the preparations of Census-2021 in the state level Coordination Committee here. An official spokesperson said that the census operations will be carried out in two phases; 1st phase i.e. House-listing and Housing Census will be carried out from May 15 to June 29, 2020 along with the updation of National Population Register. Second phase i.e. Population Enumeration will be conducted from 9th to 28th February, 2021 with a revisional round from 1st to 5th March, 2021.
The spokesperson further revealed that Boundaries of the administrative units at all level shall stand freezed as on December 31, 2019. This will place a blanket ban on making any changes in the boundaries of existing Municipalities, Revenue villages, Tehsils, Development Blocks, Sub Divisions, Districts etc. till the completion of Census 2021 operations in the state.
The Chief Secretary was apprised that training of the Master Trainers will be held from 16th to 21st December, 2019 at MGSIPA, Chandigarh. The Enumerators and Supervisors, mainly teachers (Primary and Secondary), clerks or any officials of the state government, Local Authorities etc., will be deployed for the field work of Census 2021. They would be imparted a four days training in this regard. The process of enumeration will be done with the help of a bilingual mobile app and paper format also. Use of maps/geo-referencing at the time of house listing is also under consideration.
The Chief Secretary discussed the road map for undertaking the Census in 2021 and it was emphasized that improvements in design and technological interventions be made so as to ensure that the Census data is finalized at the earliest.
Financial Commissioner Rural Development and Panchayats Seema Jain, Principal Secretary Local Government A. Venu Prasad, Secretary School Education Krishan Kumar, Special Secretary Planning D.S. Mangat and Additional Secretary Revenue Capt. Karnail Singh were present in the meeting.
Director Census Punjab and Chandigarh Dr. Abhishek Jain gave details of activities to be completed in advance. Joint Director Mritunjay Kumar and other officials of the Census department also participated in the meeting.
