Jammu, Aug. 12 -- Ladakh, one of the country's two youngest Union territories, is all set to lead the country in Census 2027, with population enumeration scheduled to be completed across the Union territory by September 30, months before the exercise begins in most parts of the country. Chief principal census officer (CPCO) and director, census operations (DCO), J&K and Ladakh, Amit Sharma, said, "Census 2027 will take off in Ladakh in a sense that self enumeration (SE) for Ladakh as well as 16 snow-bound districts of J&K (partially) will start on August 17 till 31, like it happened previously for HLO (Houselisting and Housing Census Operation) from May 17 to 31." Sharma informed that immediately after SE, second phase of census will take place for Ladakh and J&K. "After that we will have population enumeration (PE) from September 1 to 30 for Ladakh as well as J&K. It will happen along with few snow-bound areas of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. They will proceed simultaneously and partially but technically, Ladakh will be the first state or UT in the country where this exercise will be 100% complete because Ladakh is all snow-bound," said Sharma. The Census 2027 reference date for Ladakh will be October 1, whereas, for J&K and rest of the country their reference date is most likely to be March 1, 2027, he said, adding that this way Ladakh shall emerge as the first UT/state in the nation which shall complete the entire Census activity by the end of September this year. For security forces in Ladakh, Sharma informed that they have printed a sufficient number of paper schedules. "Since locations of the defence personnel cannot be geo-tagged, security forces in Ladakh will be covered through special charges. They have their separate charge officers," he said and informed that for the purpose, his department has started a training programmed for special charges for the ITBP from Tuesday itself. On logistics, he said human resource was the biggest manpower it has to deal with the exercise "We have to properly put in place our enumerators and supervisors. However, this time the deployment is larger, and we are imparting good training so that everything happens smoothly and Ladakh sets an example for the nation," he said. He said that the success rate in Ladakh will set a benchmark for other states in plain areas where the main exercise has to be held in February next year. He informed that the department has roped J&K Bank branches for dissemination of information. "For efficient dissemination of information, we have signed an MoU with the J&K Bank. They have 1100 branches right from LAC to LoC that would be handy for quick dissemination of information," he said. Census 2027 is being looked upon as a vital exercise forplanning, policy formulation and understanding the socio-economic landscape of the country....