While inclusion in the National Population Register (NPR) has assumed great significance in view of the unique identity that the Government of India has planned, there are many apprehensions among people who are not the natives of the City and tenants.

With increasing number of grievances, the corporation has asked the people to make use of its redressal cell to communicate the problems.

In most cases, non-natives have faced the problem. While male members leave for work, their family members are in dark over enumeration teams’ arrival.

In a number of instances, they are told their enumeration will be carried at their ancestral place.

As per Census norms, anyone living in an urban or rural area for six months should be covered under the enumeration.

The real problem is if such members go uncovered in this phase, they will be deprived of the photography process which will be held in February next year. No enrolment in NPR and no unique ID card could mean trouble.

“We’ve come across such complaints and in majority of cases, the landlords are believed to have suppressed arrival of the enumeration teams. We are now encouraging people to use our toll-free numbers to convey their location and details so that enumerators could be re-sent,” said Municipal Commissioner Gadadhar Parida.

A major reason why the tenants are being kept in dark is landlords have to shell out more in terms of holding tax if information on the rented portions of their houses are revealed. The latter choose not to disclose the details.

“Since I am out of the house during the day hours, it is not possible for my wife to find out if the survey teams have come,” said Hari Babu, originally a native of Parlakhemundi, who currently lives in Sabar Sahi area. In fact, the scenario applies more for families where both the spouses are working.

However, that’s not the only problem though. In many cases, the enumerators give a jump to all the housing units because it means more work and the heatwave conditions have affected their movement too.

The municipal corporation, according to BMC officials, also realised that the enumeration blocks in many places consist of more housing units than actually projected.

In certain pockets of Salia Sahi, a certain slum was to comprise 500 households and divided into three enumeration blocks. However, when Census teams reached, they had more than what they were prepared for.

The Municipal Commissioner said, the surveying teams had been asked for a 100 percent inclusion while the grievance redressal cell has been asked to attend immediately to complaints.