Census activities put off due to COVID-19, Minister tells Lok Sabha
The Hindu
The first digital Census has a provision for self-enumeration, says Nityanand Rai in written reply
Owing to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, Census 2021 and other Census-related field activities have been postponed until further orders, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. “In Census, data is collected on demographic and various socio-economic parameters like education, SC/ST, religion, language, marriage, fertility, disability, occupation and migration of the individuals. The forthcoming Census is to be the first digital Census and there is a provision for self-enumeration,” Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, said in a written reply to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s question. A mobile application for data collection and a Census portal for managing and monitoring various Census related activities have been developed. The questionnaire for the first phase of Census was notified in the Gazette.
The municipal bus stand auditorium in Malappuram was packed. But nobody quite knew what to expect. After all, a new event was making its debut at the State School Arts Festival. The moment V.G. Harikrishnan started his rendition of Pyar bhare do sharmile nain..., everyone was convinced that Ghazal was here to stay. The student from GVHSS, Atholi (Kozhikode), was applauded loudly for his rendering of the timeless ghazal sung originally by Mehdi Hassan.

For the last few weeks, several wards in Madurai city have been getting piped drinking water through a new drinking water scheme. The sweetness of the generously supplied water has led to loss of business to several suppliers of canned drinking water in the city. But, not many know that the water supplied to the houses in Madurai is directly drawn from Lower Dam of Mullaperiyar Dam in Idukki district of Kerala.











