The Odisha government on Wednesday issued a notification for carrying out house-listing operations, as part of the census exercise between April and September, 2020. There was no word on the National Population Register (NPR) survey.
The house-listing and the NPR are usually conducted simultaneously. The non-issuance of notification regarding the NPR assumes significance in Odisha as the Naveen Patnaik government, unlike many non-BJP governments, had never opposed the NPR before. “We have issued notification for house-listing and we cannot comment on the NPR at this stage,” said Pradipta Mohapatra, Additional Chief Secretary in charge of Revenue and Disaster Management. The State government is reportedly waiting for a clarification from the Centre on its reservation on NPR form’s 13(ii) question on date and place of birth of parents. Once the clarification is received, notification on NPR, which is dubbed as a step towards preparing the controversial National Register of Citizens, will be issued afresh.
While supporting the Citizen (Amendment) Act, Mr. Patnaik had earlier said his government would not implement the NRC in the State.
As per the latest notification, 31 questions will be asked during house-listing exercise. They include mobile number, ownership status of the census house, total number of persons normally residing in the household and the name of the head of household.
The notification, however, made it clear that the mobile numbers would only be used for census related communication.
