Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy on Friday asked the concerned officials to make the Census-2021 data bona fide and credible.

He was speaking to the officers engaged in census operation at a State-level conference at the Lokseva Bhawan here. Tripathy said, “Census data become the basis of planning and reference for ten long years. Since it is done in every ten years, some officers may not be quite conversant with the process. As such, the Collectors, ADMs, Tehsildars, Municipal Commissioners, Block Development Officers and Executive Officers must read and understand the Act and Rules in detail.”

Tripathy directed them to also go through the census compendiums and organise trainings properly at all levels.

He pointed out that the Census-2021 is first of its kind as it is mostly being dome on digital mode.

Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said, “Since census is a time-bound operation, it should be undertaken with all seriousness at all levels.”

Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue & Disaster Management Pradipta Mohapatra said, “Census is the principal source of primary data at the grassroots level like village, ward and towns on pan-Indian basis and it is widely used by national and international agencies. As such, the enumerators play an important and scared role for Governance, planning and research.” 

Census Operations Director Premananda Khuntia said this time, a mobile app would be used in house and population enumeration. The app could be used both in online and offline modes. A mixed method of data collection with mobile app, paper schedule and self-enumeration would be adopted. The enumerators would use their own android mobile or i-phones. An additional incentive of Rs 7,500 would be provided for use of own mobile in enumeration work. The management and monitoring works would be done through census web portal. This would help in faster data finalisation with greater accuracy.

The Revenue & Disaster Management Department would be the State Nodal Department for Census Operations. The entire operation would be carried on in two phases. The Phase-I would be a period of 45 days from April to September 2020, during which house listing would be done. The Phase-II would be from February 9 to 28, 2021, during which population enumeration would be undertaken. The revision round would be conducted from March 1 to 5, 2021.

The district Collectors and the Commissioners of Corporations would serve as Principal Census Officers. Additional District Magistrates, Sub-Collectors and Sub-Divisional Magistrates and Revenue Divisional Officers would operate as Census Officers. Tehsidars, Additional Tehsildars, BDOs and Executive Officers would operate as Charge Officers. Field-level officers of the State Government and the Urban Local Bodies along with teachers would work as enumerators. Officers, generally of a rank higher than enumerators, would work as Supervisors.

The Collectors along with senior Revenue Division-level officers and district-level officers participated in the discussion through videoconferencing.