The entire exercise will be done through village and ward secretariat staff mapping 1.67 crore households. The state government wants to complete the census exercise by Jan 28. The census is also being conducted at a time when general elections are just round the corner. Andhra Pradesh will see both assembly and Lok Sabha elections being held simultaneously.
Sources said that the state government wants to know the exact proportion of SCs, STs and backward classes through the first-ever caste-based census in the state in 94 years. All the reservations now are provided based on old data, which the government plans to update for future policy decisions. Armed with the latest data, the government may pitch in for more quotas for the backward sections, SCs and STs, which are important constituencies of the YSRCP government.
The state government has readied a mobile application to capture caste details of individuals instantaneously during the visit of village and ward secretariat staffers to the households. As many as 726 castes and communities have been listed in the mobile application which helps the staffers complete the exercise quickly.
Second round of census from Jan 29
A ccording to the official data, about 1.23 crore families consisting of 3.56 crore population in rural areas and 44.44 lakh families with nearly 1.3 crore population in urban areas will be covered during the census.
The state government has also decided to go for another round of census of those left uncovered during the first phase.
The second round will cover the remaining families and will be held for five days from January 29 to February 2. Staffers from the village and ward secretariat would visit the households under the guidance of the local village and ward volunteers that the YSRCP government appointed immediately after coming to power.
All the households have already been mapped to the local village/ward secretariat for implementation of the welfare schemes. The state government is extending benefits of welfare schemes to over 85 percent of the families in the state, officials claim.
Before kick-starting the comprehensive census, the state government had carried out the census process in seven secretariat limits in seven different districts in the state. About 3300 families with a population of over 7000 were covered in the pilot project. “We have enabled the process to be captured through off-line mode wherever there is trouble in collecting the data in online mode. We are expecting the off-line mode requirement in about 400 villages in agency areas,” said a senior official.
