State flags delays, PMC suspends ward officer over slow census work

Pune: State census authorities have taken serious cognisance of delays in the ongoing house-listing exercise and directed local administrations to ensure that field operations are completed as per the schedule.

After inspections and review meetings, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) suspended the officer in-charge of census operations in Yerawada-Wadgaonsheri ward and appointed a replacement officer after spotting significant delays in the exercise.

Municipal commissioner Naval Kishore Ram instructed and additional municipal commissioner (estate) Prajit Nair on June 1 suspended the officer and ordered a departmental inquiry into the delays.

Senior census officials said Pune has recorded satisfactory progress, except for Yerawada-Wadgaonsheri ward.

“There was a delay in work and it has been addressed. Local officials have initiated action,” a senior census official who was in Pune for a review said.

Officials said the census officer for Yerawada-Wadgaonsheri, was responsible for registering enumerators and supervisors on the Census Management and Monitoring System (CMMS) portal, issuing appointment letters, organising training programmes, creating house-listing blocks and monitoring daily progress of field operations.

The suspension order states that despite repeated instructions through official correspondence, review meetings and inspections, the expected progress was not achieved. Officials said inadequate manpower planning, poor coordination and ineffective supervision resulted in substantial delays in the ward’s census work.

State census authorities, who reviewed the ward’s performance during their visit to Pune, found that work had started in only 540 of the 1,039 enumeration groups in the ward, while operations in 499 groups had not commenced even after a fortnight of the exercise.

“The expected progress was not achieved despite repeated directions and reviews. The delay was serious enough to affect completion of the exercise within the stipulated timeline. Since the census is a national responsibility, negligence in its implementation cannot be overlooked and appropriate disciplinary action has been taken,” Nair told TOI.