KATHMANDU: Vice-Chairman of National Planning Commission (NPC) Prof Dr Pushpa Raj Kandel has said accurate data and information help pave development roadmap.

Dr Kandel said it during a ‘training organized for province and district enumerators and assistant enumerators under the national census-2078’ here Wednesday.

He urged the enumerators to seriously carry out responsibility while collecting data and information. With the availability of infrastructures, every local level and their wards would be accessible this time for enumerators which would help make the census more credible.

Similarly, NPC Member Dr Ram Kumar Phunyal said lack of accurate data and information impedes the development of welfare state. The enumerators must be capable to collect actual data, he stressed.

Director General at Central Bureau of Statistics, Nabin Lal Shrestha, said the census should be taken as a big opportunity that creates history and fosters a debate for a decade. He urged all sides concerned to facilitate the collection of data.

Deputy Director General Hemraj Regmi requested the enumerators to be aware that it is the biggest census the country ever has. Honesty in work is must, he added.

The CBS has informed that the national census would be conducted in two phases- first from May 9 to May 28, the second from June 8 to June 22.

The enumerators will reach every household to collect the data. The data would be collected on family, number of family members, property, agriculture, bank account, technical and vocational skills, loan and other demographic information.

Nepal had first begun census in 1968BS.