The census questionnaire is to include an item allowing to forego specifying nationality, said the census chief.

(Kazan, March 2, Tatar-inform, Alia Sabirova). The State Council committee for culture, science, education and national affairs has debated issues related to the census, to be held in October 2010.

According to the committee’s chairman Razil Valeev, a great many questions are being sent to the State Council on the preparation and holding the event, that is why the parliamentarians decided to discuss the census.

The State Statistics Service Tatarstan branch head Valery Kandilov recalled the preparations for the census had in Tatarstan begun in April 2008. The Tatarstan and territorial commissions were then assembled, to facilitate the preparations for and holding of the census. The work aimed to identify the borders of administrative territories and municipalities within them has been completed. Measures were taken to remove breaches in address recording.

Valery Kandilov went on to recall the state census commission 2010 included Prime Minister of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. With this in view, the Tatarstanstat chief expressed expectation Minnikhanov would be able to influence various adopted decisions.

Over the course of the discussion, the MPs spoke about filling out the “nationality” column in the census paper. The column is filled out by each interviewee personally. The questionnaire is to include an item allowing to forego specifying their nationality, said Kandilov. With this in view, the State Council deputy holds, difficulties could arise, so training the census personnel should be given best attention.

Stationary posts will be open during the 2010 census as well. According to Valery Kandilov, in 2002, four percent of Tatarstanians visited stationary posts. “I think people wanting to do that will this year be more,” he noted.
*A

R/L