PESHAWAR: With the arrangements for the imminent population census in place, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police have asked the provincial government to provide them Rs525.427 million to do the enumeration-related duties across the province.

According to the relevant officials, the police sent a letter to the home and tribal affairs department last month seeking those funds to provide security cover for the census exercise in the province.

An official told Dawn that he had yet to hear from the home department about the sought-after money.

He said the movement of cops and provision of food to them required money.

Around 16,362 cops to be deployed in KP for exercise

A copy of the police department’s Feb 21 letter available with Dawn notes that in order to maintain law and order and to avoid untoward incidents during the census beginning on March 15, an additional force of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police and Frontier Constabulary was being acquired for deployment across the province.

“Funds amounting to Rs525.427 million are required for census duties and deployment,” it said, adding that of the total money, Rs403.512 million will be required for the provision of food to the policemen and around Rs121.915 million for conveyance and hiring charges.

The details shared with Dawn show that the KP police have planned to deploy around 16,362 police personnel across the province for census duties.

A senior home and tribal affairs department official said that the department has sent a summary sanctioning the allocation of the required amount on Monday.

APP adds: All arrangements have been finalised for the smooth and peaceful holding of the sixth national population census in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata slated to begin on Wednesday (March 15).

Assistant census commissioner Saeedur Rehman said on Monday that 13 KP districts and one Fata agency had been selected for the first phase of the census, which would end on April 13, while the second phase would take place from April 25 to May 24.

According to him, among these 13 districts are Peshawar, Mardan, Swabi, Charsadda, Nowshera, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan, Hangu, Abbottabad, Haripur, Mansehra, Battagram and Torghar, while the one Fata agency is Orakzai.

In the second phase, the census will be held in 12 KP districts including Bannu, Kohat, Karak, Tank, Malakand, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Chitral, Swat, Kohistan, Buner/Daggar and Shangla and six Fata agencies, including Mohmand, Khyber, Kurram, Bajaur, South Waziristan and North Waziristan.

The census will begin at 8am and continue until 4pm without break. One enumerator along with a security person will record names of houses, shops, persons, ages, married, unmarried persons, education and gender etc in two different forms and will submit it to the relevant authorities soon after completion.

In case of wrong information or non-cooperation by any individual, the relevant person will face six months imprisonment and Rs50,000 fine.

Mr Rehman said four high powered committees had been set up for census supervision and holding in KP and Fata.

“The first committee at provincial level will be headed by the provincial chief secretary and consisting of its members, local government and rural development secretary, and senior officials of provincial/Fata administration with the task of supervising and monitoring the whole process,” he said.

The chief secretary has made the LG secretary as a focal person.

The second committee will work under the supervision of the commissioner of the respective divisions with its members, deputy commissioners and DIG police etc, while the third committee at district level would be headed by deputy commissioners with members, assistant commissioners and officials of the nation building departments.

The commissioner has been assigned the task to work as divisional census coordinator and deputy commissioners as census district coordinator respectively.

A vigilance committee led by assistant commissioners with members, DSP police and other officials of district administration will monitor the process on ground and closely coordinate with the above committees and officials.

Mr Rehman said in Fata, political agents would act as census agency coordinator with authority to monitor census process in their respective agencies with the help of assistant political agents.

He said around 12,000 staff members of various national building departments including teachers had been trained from Feb 7 to Feb 28, 2017, for performance of the national obligation.

All census related items including vehicles, utensils and registration forms had been dispatched to the divisional and district officers respectively.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2017