Citizen Complaints About Non-coverage In Census To Be Entertained By May 30: Dr Naeem

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd May, 2023 ) :Chief Census Commissioner (CCC) Dr Naeem-uz-Zafar on Monday said the citizen complaints regarding non-coverage would be entertained and redressed at the Census Support Center (CSC) and the PBS Call Centers (0800-57574) by May 30.

Addressing a news conference, he formally announced the successful completion of the country's 1st ever Digital Population and Housing Census, saying "It (the field operation) was closed on May 15, 2023; however, the tablets access remained open for specified districts till May 22 for verification of leftover areas to ensure complete coverage as per the decision of the Census Monitoring Committee." Simultaneously, he said, the verification for quality assurance of the data would continue using a modern technique called Computer Assisted Telephonic Interview (CATI) and "the respected citizens are urged to extend cooperation with our team to verify their data through randomly generated calls through CATI." He said the census field operation, which started on March 1, 2023, continued without any interruption and major technical glitches.

"The successful conclusion of the fieldwork for the digital census is elation and a moment of great pride for the nation as it is the largest South Asian digital census of its kind." The Chief Census Commissioner said the digital system also smoothly functioned throughout the field operation, adding "The overall progress of the census is very encouraging and satisfactory." He said retrieval of tablets from field staff at the CSC would commence from May 24 after synchronization of the remaining data, if any.

"The special services provided for the census at Provinces, Districts and Tehsils level like GIS based Monitoring Dashboards as well as access of tablets for data entry will be closed by midnight of May 22," he said.

Dr Naeem said a National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) team at the CSC would ensure complete synchronization of data before receiving tablets form the field staff, and the authority would provide certificate for complete data synchronization from tablet to the database.

Besides, he said all Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, being Census District Officer, would provide duly filled and signed completion certificate on the prescribed format at earliest.

"The payment to the field staff for census work will be made after the provision of completion certificate by respective DC/AC as per the decision of Census Monitoring Committee," the CCC added.

He said the headcount data of armed forces restricted areas and collective residences would be incorporated in the population-counts respective blocks.

Dr Naeem said the census field operation in heavily snow-bound, law and order-affected areas was not conducted, for which "the respective governments have been requested to indicate the appropriate time for field census operation in snow-bound areas comprising of 129 blocks of AJK, 80 blocks of Gilgit-Baltistan and 16 blocks of (Mansehra) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa." He said the same request had been made for the census field operation in law and order affected 57 blocks of Rojhan, Punjab and 11 blocks of Ghotki, Sindh.

"The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has also been requested to indicate the appropriate time for census field operation in Kohistan after devising a comprehensive strategy," he said.

He said a committee of renowned demographers was constituted to analyze the census data for pointing out departures from the normal trends, if any.

The committee would finalize its recommendations for consideration of the Census Monitoring Committee (CMC)after analyzing census data by applying demographic techniques, keeping in view forensic reports.

"The population count will be changed owing to data synchronization, the addition of restricted areas and collective residence aggregated counts and change on the basis of recommendations of demographers' committee approved by CMC," he informed.