Odisha Notifies House-Listing Ops For Census, Silent On NPR

Bhubaneswar: The state government has issued a notification for house-listing operations for the Census from April.

However, the notification didn’t clarify whether the National Population Register (NPR) updation would be held simultaneously with house-listing, though both are supposed to be conducted at the same time.

“No decision has been taken on NPR so far. We are waiting for a decision on it,” said a census official on condition of anonymity.

Odisha’s additional chief secretary of revenue and disaster management department, PK Mohapatra, said the routine house-listing would be done between April 1 and September 30.

“The government has written to the Centre on some issues of NPR. Once we get clearance, it would be done,” he added.

The notification issued on Wednesday by the state revenue and disaster management department said 31 questions would be asked during the house-listing operations. These would include questions about drinking water source, access to latrines, number of married couples in a household and whether they owned a smartphone, laptop, scooter, motorcycle etc.

Last month, Odisha had said it would not seek details of the birthplace of parents of its residents during updation of NPR. Raising its objection to the column on the birthplace of the parents of the respondents, the Odisha government has moved the Centre seeking to delete it.