PESHAWAR, Jan 10: The government has decided to hold the 6th population census in October and maps of 50,666 Mauzas and villages and 5,316 urban circles across the country have been completed with the exception of the troubled South Waziristan Agency.

This was revealed during a meeting of the provincial census coordination committee held at the Fata Secretariat on Saturday, said a handout. Fata Additional Chief Secretary Habibullah Khan presided over the meeting.

The meeting was informed that the census would be held in two stages; the first stage of house listing operation would be carried out from April 13 to April 27 and in the second stage, population census would be conducted in October.Census Commissioner Mohammad Saeed, while explaining objectives of the meeting, said the first meeting of the census coordination committee had been held in Peshawar due to the sensitive situation of law and order in the NWFP and Fata.

The country has been divided into 402 census districts, 3,127 census charges, 20,610 census circles and 145,000 blocks.

A staff of 170,000 will be required for the census operation, including 3,800 enumerators and 375 supervisors for Fata alone. A field operation plan for the census staff has been prepared and master trainers are also ready to train the staff.