Shillong 10^th Feb 2020: The State Level Conference on Census of India 2021 (Houselisting & Housing Census Operations and Updation of NPR) was held on Monday at the conference room of the Main Secretariat, Shillong.

The state level conference organised by the Directorate of Census Operations, Meghalaya and GAD (B), State Nodal Department for Census, was attended by Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.

During his address the Chief Minister while reiterating the importance of one of the largest administrative and statistical exercise in the world, carried out every 10 years, emphasised on the need for proper activation, sensitisation and training of all tiers of the government functionaries involved in the exercise to achieve accurate results.

In his address, Chief Secretary, M.S. Rao said that the quality of the data collected during the census is extremely important and over the years the process of data collection has been refined. ‘At present with the implementation of the digital mode of census it will not only speed it up but also improve the quality as well’, he added.

He also said that the census is the basis for the economic and social planning. ‘It is crucial for the whole exercise to be done correctly and properly to get reliable and good quality data for the State’, he added.

The Census of India 2021 will implement mobile app based solution for data collection. The census will be divided into two phases. The first phase will include Houselisting and Housing census operations and updation of NPR while the second phase is kept for population enumeration.

During the inaugural session a brief overview of Census 2021 was presented by J. Beda, Director (Census Operations Meghalaya), Govt. of India.