Sun, Jul 06, 2025
4 States Get Directors Of Census Pending Centre’s Decision To Conduct Population Count
The officers include 2012-batch IAS Nikhil Pavan Kalyan for Odisha, his batchmate M Sundaresh for Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, 2010-batch IAS J Nivas for Andhra Pradesh and 2011-batch IFoS Deep Shikha Sharma for Himachal Pradesh.
Jun 02, 2025 · 2 min read
Even as the government is yet to announce dates for conducting the much-delayed decennial census exercise for 2021 in the country, the Department of Personnel & Training on Monday issued orders appointing senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Forest Service (IFoS) officers as Director of Census Operations and Citizen Registration under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for different states.
All the appointment orders have been issued separately, as 2012-batch IAS officer of Odisha cadre Nikhil Pavan Kalyan has been appointed to the post for his home cadre state.
In the order the DoPT said, “Nikhil Pavan Kalyan, lAS (OR-2012) has been appointed as Director of Census Operations/Director of Citizen Registration (Director level), Odisha for a period up to 31.12.2025 or until further orders, whichever event takes place earlier.”
In another order the DoPT said, 2012-batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre M Sundaresh Babu has been appointed as “Director of Census Operations/Director of Citizen Registration” for both Tamil Nadu and Union Territory of Puducherry “for a period up to 31.12.2025 or until further orders.”
Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer J Nivas of 2010-batch has been asked to join as the Director of Census Operations/Director of Citizen Registration for his cadre state for “a period up to 31.12.2025 or until further orders, whichever event takes place earlier”.
For Himachal Pradesh the DoPT has appointed 2011-batch IFoS officer of AGMUT cadre Deep Shikha Sharma as “Director of Census Operations/Director of Citizen Registration (Director level) for a period up to 31.12.2025 or until further orders, whichever event takes place earlier”.
Source-based media reports, however, claimed that the government may commence the long-pending census in September this year.
Originally scheduled for completion in 2021, the decennial census had been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was further pushed back due to technical and logistical hurdles.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, last month gave its nod to include caste enumeration in the upcoming census.
As per Article 246 of the Constitution of India, Census is a union subject and is listed at 69 in the Union List of the Seventh Schedule. Notably caste was excluded from all census operations conducted since independence.
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