Kolkata, May 29 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari will chair a crucial meeting at the state secretariat, Nabanna, on Friday to discuss ways to accelerate the census process in the state.

The decision to begin the census process was taken at the first meeting of the new cabinet led by Adhikari as West Bengal’s ninth Chief Minister on May 11.

After that, the state government issued a notification allocating responsibilities to various levels of officials to complete the census work. At the district level, divisional commissioners, district magistrates, additional district magistrates, sub-division magistrates, block development officers (BDOs) and joint BDOs have been given additional responsibility for that purpose.

At the same time, commissioners, additional commissioners, municipal executive officers and officers of equivalent ranks in urban or municipal areas have been instructed to carry out the census work.

Now, on Friday, CM Adhikari will chair the crucial meeting to review the progress of work and to discuss ways to accelerate the process.

Although initial preparatory work to carry out the census had begun in several states some time ago, the process was on hold till the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government came to power after the recently concluded Assembly polls in the state.

CM Adhikari has accused the previous Mamata Banerjee-led and Trinamool Congress-ruled state government of not extending necessary cooperation to the Union Home Ministry in the matter because of which the beginning of the census process in the state has been delayed.

An insider from the state secretariat said that at the crucial meeting chaired by CM Adhikari on Friday, the main agenda in discussion would be census preparation, staff recruitment and assignment to carry out the process, training for staff involved with the process, identifying the data collection methods and how to ensure smooth and effective coordination with the Union government in the matter.

“There might be discussion on possibilities of collecting data digitally,” the state secretariat insider said.

The Directorate of Census Operations, West Bengal has also stated that a special mobile application will be used to gather information by census officers after they make door-to-door visits.

There will be an option for the “self-enumeration’ facility as well. In this, interested people will have the option to voluntarily submit their details and information online through the government portal.

After submitting the information, a ‘self-enumeration ID’ will be generated, which can be used for subsequent verification. Enumerators will collect official data and upload it to a central database or repository.

–IANS

src/dpb