6th population, house census launched
By Kalbe Ali
ISLAMABAD: The 6th population and house census was finally launched across the country including the federal capital and the Fata on Tuesday.
However, the survey could not be launched at the two main blocks due to non-availability of the president and the prime minister who have the serial number 001 in their respective census blocks.
The Population Census Organization (PCO) of Statistics Division launched the population and house census 2011 which would be conducted by more than 82,000 personnel mostly from the education department.
The armed forces personnel have not been engaged in the project due to ongoing war on terror.
While talking to Dawn , Chief Census Commissioner, Population Census Division Khizar Hayat Khan said that the house listing operation had been launched simultaneously at the delimitation of 145,844 census blocks all over the country including Fata, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, however the staff had been directed not to risk their lives in certain sensitive areas due to the terrorist activities.
The decision to conduct the population and house census was made at the meeting of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in November 2010 and it had also been decided on the occasion that the census would be conducted in two phases.
It was decided in the CCI meeting that in the first phase, `House Census` would be conducted from April 5 to April 19 which would be followed by the population census in August or in the beginning of September 2011.
Khizar Hayat said that the final report of the 6th population and house census would be submitted to the government by December this year.
According to him, three questionnaires had been finalised and approved by the Census Advisory Committee which were drafted in consultation with the data users and experts and in the light of the recommendations made at the census methodology workshop.
Meanwhile, Secretary Statistics Division Asif Bajwa told Dawn that the total cost of the project was Rs1.5 billion and the amount needed for the first phase had already been released.
The major portion of the expenditures would be made for the remuneration for the survey staff which would be equal to their one-month salary.
He said that during the house listing exercise the authorised enumerators would visit door to door, mark the house number with green marker and the head of the house would be registered in the light of his Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC).
“We request the masses to cooperate with the survey teams and all those who are at home should have the CNIC number of the head of the family,” Mr Bajwa said.
He said that the survey in some areas would be a bit more technical as there were two kinds of IDPs in the country–one were those who had left their houses due to fighting and the others were the flood victims and the survey in these areas would be done with the help of Civil Armed Forces (CAF) personnel, revenue department and the local influential persons.
Secretary Statistic Division said those who might face a difficulty during the survey could lodge complaint at the toll free number 0800-57575 of the Statistics Division.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/6/2011
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