BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Government has issued notification for house listing operations for Census 2021. The house listing operations will take place from April 1 to September 30. However, the notification did not mention anything about updation of National Population Register (NPR) which is also likely to start during April. The notification issued on Wednesday by Revenue and Disaster Management department said 31 questions would be asked during the house listing operations.
These would include questions on drinking water source, access to latrines, number of married couples in a household and whether they owned a smartphone, laptop, scooter and motorcycle. According to Vivek Joshi, Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, questions from one to five will relate to building particulars, questions six and seven will relate to household particulars (for census house used wholly or partly as a residence), questions 8 to 10 will be about the head of the household and questions from 9 to 31 will relate to normal household, including assets.
Official sources maintained that the State Government has written to the Centre on some issues of NPR. The NPR will be started once the Government receives clarifications. The NPR updation is likely to be carried on in Odisha between April 16 and May 31. Meanwhile, Odisha Government had decided not to 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 respondents, it has moved the Centre seeking to delete it.
The issue was also discussed at the meeting of BJD Parliamentary Party held here on Tuesday. The meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik decided not to collect information on the date and place of birth of parents for preparation of NPR. Following objections from the State Government, the Centre had clarified that Column 13(2) of the NPR Form was optional and the norm would not be applicable in Odisha.