The countrywide census began at Temple Trees today, where information on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family was collected by the Census and Statistics Department enumerators.

The President’s house had been visited by Census and Statistics Department Director General Suranjana Vidyaratne and other senior department officials for the purpose. President Rajapaksa had been specially informed as to how the census would be carried out and what information should be provided.

During the visit the department officials had also handed over a report on the enumeration of vital events in the Northern Province in the year 2011 where information that had not been accessed before had been collected by the department.

The census will be carried out at each household to gather information on each person. It would take place from February 27 to March 19 and again a revision round would be carried out from March 20 and 21.

The department said that it had begun a new e-method of storing system for the purpose for convenience and that it would utilise this system at the next census to collect data on each person instead of appointing enumerators to visit each household. The census funded by the Finance Ministry costs Rs.1.7 billion. (Olindhi Jayasundere)