DCs ordered to focus on census till 15th

LAHORE: The caretaker Punjab government does not seem serious regarding making arrangements for Punjab Assembly election on the orders of Supreme Court, as it has issued instructions to all deputy commissioners to focus on census work till May 15 to ensure complete coverage and quality of data.

These instructions were issued during a meeting jointly presided over by the Chief Secretary Punjab and Chief Census Commissioner Dr Naeem Al Zafar. Provincial Census Commissioner Ali Bahadur Qazi and officers concerned attended the meeting while all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video link on Tuesday.

The Chief Secretary said that the census is an important national responsibility. He said that the success of the census depends on getting accurate data, which would help in resource allocation, and future planning. He mentioned that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has identified the issue of undercounting in 20,000 blocks in Punjab. He asked the officers to complete work of recounting in these blocks within the next eight days.

The Chief Secretary also directed the deputy commissioners to send a progress report regarding census daily and reprimand the enumerators who did underreporting.Dr Naeem said that the census date has been extended till May 15 to ensure complete coverage and quality of data. He said that all the required information would be provided to the divisional commissioners to remove the variation in the data.

Member Support Services PBS Sarwar Gondal gave a detailed briefing at the meeting. He said that the Punjab government provided full support for the census, which is commendable. He said that a call centre (UAN No. 0800-57574) has been set up for receiving census-related complaints.