Census staff to visit houses in twin cities

Month-long exercise will begin with house counting today

RAWALPINDI/ ISLAMABAD: Enumerators are all set to visit the twin cities as part of the sixth population census.

Unlike other parts of the country, Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi district were included in the second phase of the head-counting exercise, which begins today.

Islamabad census

The exercise in the capital will start with a three-day house listing operation in the twin cities, beginning with the office of the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) in Sector G-9.

“We have finalised arrangements for conducting the house-listing operation in the capital from April 25 to 27,” Islamabad’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Abdul Sittar Essani told The Express Tribune, adding that they and security institutions will coordinate with each other.

He further said that the population census will commence after the house-listing operation ends on April 27.

Essani said that as many as 652 teams of data collectors, 135 circular supervisors and 14 in charges of enumerators consisting of military and civilian census staff will take part in the exercise in ICT.

Moreover, he said that the capital has been divided into 135 circles for counting the number of houses and people living there.

Asked about the security measures, he said that units from the army, Rangers and the Islamabad Police will jointly provide security.

Census in Pindi

Rawalpindi is all set for the sixth census to begin after census authorities distributed the necessary equipment among enumerators while the district authorities had on Friday demarcated disputed areas within the garrison city.

The authorities divided the district into charges, circles and blocks. In the urban areas, there are 28 charges, 203 circles and 1,750 blocks.

Each block will cover between 250 to 300 houses, while each circle will cover five to six blocks. Each charge will cover five to seven circles.

In rural areas of Rawalpindi district, the authorities have declared one revenue estate (moza) as one block, while a patwar circle has been designated as one census circle, and the Qanoongao circle would be equivalent to one charge.

Enumerators would use one form for counting households and a second form for counting the number of people living in each house.

In the forms, code I will be used for mentioning the number of male members, code II for female members, code III for eunuchs, code IV for the specially-abled male members, code V for specially-abled female members, and code VI for specially-abled people who are transgender.

Discussions with different officials of the district government have revealed that the census in the district was earlier scheduled to start on March 30. But the dates were changed owing to the security situation.

Moreover, a central control room for the census has been set up in the old building of the Rawalpindi Municipal Administration and relevant staff such as those working in the field had been given due training.

Further, an eight-member committee – headed by the district coordination officer and comprising the mayor, the city police officer, a senior military officer, district census officer census, the executive officers of Chaklala and Rawalpindi Cantonment Boards, and officials from education department - has been set up to supervise and coordinate the month-long census process.

Jhelum headcount

Jhelum District Commissioner Ahmer Naik, who is acting as the census coordinator, confirmed that the head counting exercise in the district will begin today.

Naik urged every household head to present their CNIC to the census workers and give accurate data about the people living in the house.

Second phase in AJK, G-B, Hazara

Meanwhile, the second phase of the census and house-listing exercise will commence in five districts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Hazara division from today.

In AJK, the census would take place in Rawalakot, Haveli, Jhelum Valley and Neelam Valley where 2,800 mobile staff members have been deputed.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM RAJA NAUBAHAR IN JHELUM

Published in The Express Tribune, April 25^th, 2017.