LUCKNOW, Feb. 27 -- A meeting of municipal corporation officers was held under the chairmanship of Sheetal Verma, director (census) and Anuj Jha, director (local bodies), on Wednesday to review preparations for the first phase of the Census of India - 2027. Commissioners and additional municipal commissioners of all municipal corporations were present. "The census is considered the largest and most reliable source of primary data at the village, city and wards level. Various central and state government departments use the data for planning and policy-making and implementing public welfare schemes. Detailed information on socio-economic and social status of people will be collected. It will form the basis for future development plans and policy-making. The data will be instrumental in developing a networked infrastructure," Verma said. The census will be conducted in two phases. In the first, house listing and enumeration will be conducted simultaneously across UP from May 22 to June 20. To ensure complete coverage of the census, the CMMS web portal will be used to prepare GIS-based maps and enumeration blocks for all municipal corporations in Census 2027, said Verma. For the first time, citizens have been provided the option of self-enumeration. Under this scheme, 15 days before the start of field work for the census in the state, from May 7 to 21, all citizens can use this option to self-enumerate by filling out an online questionnaire through the self-enumeration portal and mobile app. Jha emphasised the importance of training, systematic formation of house listing blocks and timely field work. "This census will be conducted digitally through a mobile app, which will significantly reduce time required to collect and publish census data with accuracy and transparency," he said. During the first phase of the census, house listing and housing enumeration data will be collected through a mobile app regarding 33 types of information, including construction material used by resident families, number of rooms, type of cooking fuel used, vehicles, utilities and assets, ownership status of the building, availability of a toilet, availability of an LPG/PNG connection, main foodgrains consumed by the family, phone, television, and internet. All the information will be collected digitally. The information provided by families during the census will remain confiden tial.Approximately 6,00,000 field workers will be deployed in UP for census work. The second phase will be conducted from February 9 to 28, 2027 during which caste-related data along with the population count will be collected. The reference time will be March 1. It will be the 16th census in the country and eighth since Independence....