86 enumerators in Noida face FIRs for skipping Census duties

Noida: District administration in Gautam Budh Nagar has written to police seeking FIRs against 86 enumerators deployed for Census 2027 who allegedly failed to collect their duty orders or cooperate with the enumeration exercise, officials said on Tuesday.

Of the nearly 3,000 employees deployed as enumerators across the district, 39 were identified as absentees in Noida, 44 in Greater Noida and the remainder in the YEIDA area. Officials said repeated attempts were made to contact them by phone, and their duty assignments were also sent via WhatsApp, but they neither collected the official documents nor reported for work despite the deadline having passed.

District magistrate Medha Roopam said the responsibility for completing the Census house listing exercise rests with the three development authorities in Gautam Budh Nagar. “I have asked for the list of enumerators who have not been turning up and called for action to be taken against them,” Roopam said, adding that all those assigned duties had been trained and sensitised before the exercise began. June 20 is the last date for completion of the enumeration exercise.

Charge officer for Noida, Indu Prakash Singh, wrote to the Noida DCP requesting FIRs against the defaulters, noting that they had been duly informed of their assignments but refused to collect duty-related documents or cooperate in the national-level exercise. The charge officer for Greater Noida sent a similar letter to the DCP. The administration has warned that enumerators yet to commence work must immediately collect their orders and complete their assignments, failing which similar action will follow.

The crackdown is not without precedent in the district. When the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls began in Nov 2025, the DM ordered the withholding of salaries of three electoral registration officers and 12 assistant electoral registration officers after the exercise failed to begin on schedule in several areas. She subsequently recommended FIRs against 130 booth-level officers (BLOs) and 13 supervisors for dereliction of duty. Further reviews led to departmental inquiries against 93 BLOs and 27 supervisors found absent or negligent during field verification, and FIRs were later ordered against additional BLOs who allegedly failed to distribute or collect forms despite repeated instructions.

Census 2027 will be the first census conducted in India since 2011, the 2021 exercise having been deferred indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The house-listing and housing Census phase, which precedes the population enumeration round, is currently under way across the country.