Census and NPR are two non-related processes, says Chief Secretary Tom Jose

Kerala Chief Secretary Tom Jose has said that Census and National Population Register are two non-related processes and the government will alert census enumerators not to ask two controversial questions during data collection.

He was addressing at the state-level census co-ordination committee meeting in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, which was attended by top government officials.

He said the State will not update NPR and this has been communicated to the Centre. "No NPR related activities will be carried out during census data collection," he said.

The first phase of the census will be held in April and May. Basic information about citizens, their place of residence, household items etc will be collected during this stage.

Personal information of the citizens will be collected in the second phase, which will be held between February 9 to March 5, 2021.

The chief secretary has requested people to co-operate with the enumerators. "The census data is essential to decide the development activities in the country for the next 10 years," he said.

Two questions not in questionnaire

The chief secretary has said two controversial questions - date of birth of respondents and details of their parents - will not be asked during the census.

However, it came to light on Wednesday that the questions were not part of the questionnaire prepared by the Census Directorate.

The two questions are part of the questionnaire for National Population Register (NPR).

It is not clear why the state government took objections to the questions that are not included in the questionnaire.