Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi listens to his cousin Rekha Modi at the janata darbar in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Aug. 9: The Bihar government has expressed reservations on the methodology to be adopted in the socio-economic and caste census 2011.

The government has written a letter to the Centre explaining the points, which the state government wants the Centre to have a re-look before commencing the census work.

“According to the guidelines received from the Centre, one enumerator from the agency, the selection of which would be done by the Centre, would carry a hand-held device and would make entry of the information gathered from people in this device,” deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters in a post-janata darbar interaction with the media.

He added: “The surveyed people would be given a receipt that would certify that the survey has been done. We have objected to this method as the entry would be done in English and the surveyed person would not be able to know whether the entries made in the device are correct or not. We stand for giving a copy of the entry to the surveyed persons.”

The purpose of the census work, which is being done after 2002, would be a 40-day exercise and has to be completed before December. The census will ascertain the number of below poverty line (BPL) people and will also have details of caste composition in the states. In 2002, data related to caste was not collected.

Modi said the state government had also objected to the Centre’s stand that information related to income-level and land ownership would have to be certified by the gram sabha. “As gram sabha is not an effective means of verifying such details we have requested the Centre to think of some other mechanism for this purpose,” Modi added.