New Delhi, Sept. 5 -- The Centre decided to prepone the population enumeration exercise of the Census 2027 in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand, four states where the assembly elections are due next year, according to a notification issued on Saturday.

The move is significant as the population enumeration phase for the entire country (except snowbound states and areas) is otherwise scheduled to be held in February next year. The decision indicates that the assembly elections in these four states - expected in the first quarter of 2027 - are likely to be conducted as per the existing schedule rather than being postponed due to overlapping with the Census exercise.

"The conduct of Census of the population shall be undertaken in t...