A bird’s eye view of Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, June 25: The progress of Socio-Economic and Caste Census, 2011, in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area has been slow.

Though the corporation began the exercise on June 1, very little progress has been made. The slow pace of work is being attributed to the shortage of data entry operators.

Last Friday, secretary of the state housing and urban development department had written to the BMC commissioner to expedite the process of enumeration. The letter also said that the overall performance of the state had been affected by the slow progress of enumeration work in the BMC area. The secretary has also directed the BMC to complete the process by June 30.

The BMC has deployed as many as 539 enumerators including teachers, BMC staff and government employees for this purpose and the corporation area has been divided in to seven zones. Among the 103 urban local bodies in the state, the BMC has the highest number of enumeration blocks — 1,960. These are basic building blocks for the enumeration purpose.

Sources in the BMC said the enumeration had been completed in more than 100 enumeration blocks. “We have not been provided with sufficient data entry operators for this purpose. If the census progresses at this speed, it is likely the process will be completed only by July,” said an enumerator.

According to the guidelines of Union ministry of rural development, each enumerator is to be provided with a data entry operator, who will record the data in a handheld electronic device (tablet PCs). The use of the electronic device aims to reduce data entry errors.

The Union government is conducting the exercise to list the households on the basis of their socio-economic status, which will enable the state governments to prepare a list of families living below the poverty line.

The enumeration will also help in generating an authentic data on the population, based their caste, socio economic conditions and education status.

However deputy commissioner of the BMC, Krushna Prasad Pati, said the process would be expedited.

“Primary work for enumeration process has been completed and we are hopeful that the process will be completed within the stipulated time,” said Pati.

The exercise will also help to better target government schemes to the right beneficiaries and at the same time, ensure all illegal beneficiaries are excluded.

The Union government had last conducted an exercise to identify people living below poverty line in 2002.