BHUBANESWAR: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to postpone the Census and National Population Register (NPR) updation process throughout the country in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.In a letter to the Prime Minister, Naveen said at present all efforts of the state machinery are directed towards containment of Covid-19 and all are fighting against the pandemic.“As mobilisation for census and other concerned activities shall pose a great risk for field functionaries and people as well, I would rather suggest to postpone the scheduled census and related activities in the country. Overall stock may be taken on the emerging situation,” said Naveen in his letter.The Union home ministry has already issued notification for conduct of Census-2021 and updation of NPR throughout the country. Accordingly, the states have been given schedule to complete the first phase for house listing, housing census and updation of population register between April 1st to September 30th.“About 30 lakh enumerators and supervisors in the country will be involved to collect data by visiting each household during the first phase. This has to be preceded by elaborate training, awareness campaign and related activities,” Naveen pointed out in his letter.He also requested the Prime Minister to review the census schedule and to take appropriate steps for the interest of people.Earlier, the state government had given its consent to carry out the house listing exercise while it had also decided to go ahead with the NPR updation process without seeking details of the birthplace of parents of an individual. Though the state government is yet to issue official notification to carry out the house listing and NPR exercises, a high-level meeting headed by chief secretary Asit Tripathy had decided to carry out the process during April 15 to May 31.“When the entire state machinery is on it toes to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, we can’t even think of carrying out the mammoth exercises like census and NPR updation which could involve around one lakh government employees. Also, it is not possible to conduct the required training and awareness campaigns for the census because of the restrictions imposed to contain Corona,” said a senior government official, requesting anonymity.Welcoming Naveen’s move to postpone the census exercise in view of Corona pandemic, senior BJP leader and leader of opposition Pradipta Kumar Naik said the Prime Minister would definitely take an appropriate decision on the issue.