LAHORE, July 20: The Mauza (village) Census 2003 report has been compiled and will be available by the end of next month. Agriculture Census Organization Commissioner Muhammad Younis told newsmen at a press conference on Tuesday that the report was being printed.

He said the scope of the Mauza census 2003 was extended to unsettled areas and for the first time northern areas were covered. The activity was carried out in settled areas in 1971, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1993 and 1998.

The commissioner said the report contained information about all the socio-economic indicators of the villages like availability of electricity, sources of drinking and irrigation water, sewerage system and bricked streets.

Data about the number of tubewells, tractors, poultry and fish farms, co-operative societies, provision of pesticides, fertilizers and seeds had also been collected. Similarly, information about distance of hospital, school, college, post office, railway station, petrol pumps, vegetable, grain or fruit market had also been ascertained.

He said the data would be very beneficial for the local government system. It would help plan and evaluate development activities at the tehsil and district level. Mr Younis said his organization collected data according to the parameters and standards of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

He said the data collection process for the Agricultural Machinery Census 2004 had been completed. At present, the data was being processed. The report would be ready by the end of the current year.

The number of tubewells in the country went up approximately by seven per cent annually from 1998 because of drought-like conditions in the preceding years. Tractors also increased approximately by five per cent during the period.

Mr Younis said conducting agricultural census was one of the major responsibilities of his organization, besides livestock, Mouza and agricultural machinery censuses.

The Agriculture Census 2002 was also available at website www.statpak.gov.pk, Additional Commissioner Akram Khan said. Mr Younis said the statistics division would organize a workshop in Islamabad on July 22 to brief the planners, policy makers and researchers about the activities of the organization for generation of socio-economic data in the country.

State Bank Governor Dr Ishrat would preside over the workshop, where all surveys and censuses carried out by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the Population Census Organization and the Agricultural Census Organization would also be discussed.