Mangaluru : Addressing the media persons during a press meet held at Mangalore Press Club, DC AB Ibrahim said, ” Nearly 5000 DK officials will be conducting the social and educational census launched by the Karnataka government for a period of 20 days starting from April 11 to April 30. If you look back into the history, conducting census started in 1871 in India, which is done every ten years. During the census, social, economic and educational data of the household people will be collected. This survey which consists of 55 points, takes about 40 minutes for each family to complete. It is nice to note that the chief minister is very mucg keen in this survey and intends to make it a role model for the nation”.
To a question raised by one of the reporters that the caste census form had omitted the names of Roman Catholics and Protestants, which are the two majority section of Christianity. This had lead to some confusion and fear among the Christians. Admitting the error caused in the system while conducting the census last time, the DC said that he will look into the situation and will make sure that Roman Catholic and Protestant are not missed in the census. But he also said that these two sections of Christianity need not worry because during the census, their names/status will be entered manually in the census form by the enumerators during census survey.
DC also said that this year, government officers have been selected to the census, and they have been warned to do their job right. They have been advised to make sure that they get hold of every family members in the house- and if they are not able to catch hold of the inmates during their first/second visit, they have to keep trying till they succeed in getting hold of all the family members and get their complete status, whatsoever. Nearly 5000 government employees are assigned to take up the task of census survey. Some teachers want them to be excluded from this task, but that’s not possible due to shortage of manpower, added DC.
DK District Backward Class officer Santhosh Kumar said “There are 3,930 blocks in the district and nearly 4.6 lac families. We have appointed seven officers with DC as the chief survey officer. Each district will have two resource persons, 47 master trainers, 26 In-charge officers, 4,125 statistical officers who will collect data, and 26 designated officers. Although the state will be spending Rs 190 crore on this census, about Rs 7 crore will be spent in Dakshina Kannada to undertake this task. He also said that the first copy of the census form was published in February 2015 for the benefit of public to check if everything was perfect with the census form. But surprisingly, our department didn’t receive any complaint about the issue pertaining to Roman Catholic/Protestants, unfortunately, that’s the reason the final copy had no mention of Roman Catholic and Protestant. We will look into this matter, assured Kumar.
Information officer Khader Shah- DK Information Officer said, “We have made all the arrangements pertaining to this census work, and also given wide publicity about the survey. We will have vans making announcements of the survey in rural areas and other places. We will request grama panchayat members to advertise in their areas, and also do publicity through posters and hoardings.
Pradeep D’Souza-District Statistical Officer addressing the media said ” We have already trained the Officers in four phases. These officers have to enter the data every evening during the course of the survey. Code procedure will be followed. There are a total of 1,503 castes in the state, out of which 101 are scheduled castes and 51 scheduled tribes. When asked by a journo, what in case a person is reluctant to identify his caste, D’Souza replied, “For such persons, there is a provision of relevant code in the survey form.They can make use of it”
President of District Working Journalists’ Association, Jaganath Shetty Bala, along with other board members of DWJA welcomed the DC and other dignitaries on the dais with floral bouquets.