Jammu, 06 October (H.S.): Director of Census Operations, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Amit Sharma on Tuesday said the Army, Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and other Central forces had been covered under Census 2027, with population enumeration of Special Charges completed through paper schedules in view of security concerns. Addressing a press conference here, Sharma said there are 125 special charges in Jammu and Kashmir and 47 in Ladakh, covering the armed forces, paramilitary forces and other central forces.

Population Enumeration is conducted for special charges, while there is no house listing operation (HLO) for them. Special Charges include the military, paramilitary forces and other Central forces, Sharma said, announcing that the enumeration exercise was successfully completed.

He said the census authorities had adopted a separate mechanism for special charges because of their distinct operational and security requirements.

The enumeration for these Special Charges is being conducted through paper schedules. There are security concerns involved, so their information cannot essentially be collected over the internet. Therefore, the paper schedules were printed in a timely manner and the required information was collected through these schedules, he said.

Sharma said the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, had also held an exclusive meeting with representatives of the special charges during his visit to Ladakh in September and reviewed their preparedness.

He held an exclusive meeting with the special charges and asked them about their preparations. He also reviewed the arrangements and was very satisfied after interacting with the concerned personnel, Sharma said.

He said regular meetings were held with the Ministry of Defence, helping streamline the census exercise involving the Army.

One very positive development this time is that we had regular meetings with the Ministry of Defence. The Army, which has a very large presence among the Special Charges, is directly providing the required data to us, Sharma said.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Krishan Kumar