LAHORE: Punjab’s Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal on Wednesday directed the authorities to complete the security and other arrangements in the province for digital census at the earliest.

He issued this directive during a meeting of the provincial coordinating committee for digital census held at the Civil Secretariat. The provincial census commissioner, commissioner Lahore division and top police and military officials attended the meeting while the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Member (Support Services) Sarwar Gondal, all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video link.

Speaking at the meeting, the chief secretary said that census is an important national responsibility and the future political and economic scenario of the country would largely depend on the data obtained from the census. He said the officers and staff must do the work of the census as a national duty. He also directed the provincial departments to enhance cooperation with the PBS to complete the census successfully.

The chief secretary ordered the deputy commissioners to immediately provide the facilities needed for the training of field staff for the census in the districts. He said by assigning the census duty to the employees of the education department, the educational activities should not be affected in any way.

Sarwar Gondal briefed the meeting about the work plan of digital census. He said digital census has been successfully completed in 33 districts of the country as a pilot project. He mentioned that a total of 61,000 field staff would perform duties during census in Punjab province. He said that the training process of 328 master trainers has been completed, while the training of field staff would start from January 7. He added that trained staff of PBS has been deployed with deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners for providing assistance.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022