LAHORE: The 7th and first-ever housing and population digital census has almost been completed in Lahore as the officials are currently verifying physically the data related to the number of houses visited since March 1, 2023 starting date of census in the provincial capital.

On the other hand, the authorities concerned have given five days more to the administration of Lahore and other major cities to verify the data related to digital census provided by the field teams,ensure quality and get the census information from missed during the 45 days extensive census exercise.

`Ninety-nine percent work related to the 7th and the first-ever digital census has been completed in the Punjab capital. At present, the supervisors are only checking the houses visited so far and verifying the data provided by the field teams, Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa said while presiding over a meeting held here on Saturday.

`The purpose of verifying the data by visiting houses is to ensure filling of the census forms of those missed due to various reasons like non-availability of family members etc,` he added.

While directing the officers to ensure completion of the remaining job related to census within next few days, the commissioner saideach team visited 250 houses in Lahore and uploaded data of the residents through a computerised system. He said since the 7th census is the first-ever digital of its kind, 15,184 blocks in Lahore division, including 8,021 in the Lahore city district alone, were constituted.

`We have tried to ensure availability of all required resources to the field teams and the officers engaged in such a massive official activity,` Mr Randhawa said, adding that the field teams also checked the uploaded data again and again in a bid to avert any issue.

Lahore Deputy Commissioner Rafia Haider told Dawn the government had given five days more to the administrations of all major cities in Punjab to re check the data by physically visiting the houses and verifying from the residents.`We are doing this exercise in a bid to ensure quality of the census, she said while appreciating all the census teams for their hard work.

It merits mention that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics had started the census process on Feb 20 with an option to self-enumerate through a specially designated online portal.

The response from the public has been reportedly great with over 4m people visiting the portal in just a few days. This is the first of its kind digital census in South Asia. The self-enumeration continued till March 3, 2023 while the field enumeration started on March 1.

MISSING KIDS: The help desk of Pakistan Railways police (Lahore station), in first quarter of this year, reunited 44 children, including 26 missing girls and 18 boys with their families.

According to a spokesman for the PR police, missing luggage, including laptops, mobile phones, cosmetics, artificial jewelry and clothes, worth about 1.1m was handed over to its owners. A total of 119 lost bags were re ceived by the help desk, out of which 74 bags were handed over to the real owners while 44 were submitted to the Lost Property Office.

Besides, a bag full of batteries worth Rs40,000 was handed over to its owner.

During the three months, wheelchairs were provided to 444 physically challenged and sick passengers and stretchers to 12 passengers.

The help desks established by the railways police at railway stations across the country are facilitating the railway passengers and they are providing timely assistance tothe passengers.

These help desks set up in railway stations act as temporary shelters for missing boys and girls where they are safely accommodated and provided with food and drink free of cost.

Apart from this, the desks play an important role in delivering the lost luggage of the passengers back to them.