Population Census 2017: PBS procures digital scanners
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ISLAMABAD: (APP) The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has procured eight (8) digital scanners for automatic reading of census data to ensure smooth compilation and publication of population data.
"We have procured 8 scanners and are in process of acquiring four more for standby purposes to ensure timely reading and compilation of the census data," a top official in the Bureau told APP.
The PBS has already floated a tender to purchase four more scanners, the official said adding that it was following Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules in letter and spirit for procurement of the equipment.
The official said that the census forms have been designed in computer readable mode while each scanner has the capacity to read as many as one hundred (100) forms per minute.
The official said that as many as 55 million census forms would be used for the population census 2017 to count the country's population.
It is pertinent to mention here that the bureau has already finalized all arrangements to conduct 6th population census from next month.
As per the estimates, an amount of about Rs30 billion would be spent on this important national exercise to make it smooth and secure.
An amount of Rs 7.5 billion has been released and disbursed to provinces to make arrangements for the population count exercise, he added.
The exercise would be conducted in two phases and the PBS has already recruited enumerators to hold count in 168,120 census blocks across the country.
One enumerator would be responsible for counting two blocks, each block consisting of about 200 houses.
Pakistan Army has reserved as many as 200,000 jawans to ensure security of census staff adding that one jawans each would be engaged with an enumerator.
