New Delhi, March 28 -- Registrar general of India (RGI) Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan has issued a detailed directive on responsibilities of officials involved in Census-2027, which begins on April 1 with the houselisting phase, asking them to ensure all houses are covered in data collection and warned of punitive action if anyone founded violating norms. The upcoming Census will be conducted in two phases - houselisting and housing census from April to September 2026, and population enumeration (PE) in February 2027. "For smooth conduct of Census operations, it is necessary that the Census officers engaged in conducting of Houselisting and Housing Census and Population Enumeration must be informed of their specific duties under the Census act. Along with the duties, penalties have also been prescribed under section 11 of the Census act, 1948," Narayan said in the directive issued to all states and Union territories last week. The directive, reviewed by HT, asked the enumerators to "show all buildings with numbers, number of census houses in each building and other important landmarks on the layout map; assign number to each building and census house; carry appointment letter along with ID Card during the field visit; and conduct proper probing while maintaining a polite behaviour during the field visit." Citing the provisions of penalties under Section 11 of the Census act, Narayan said in his communication that "any census officer or any person lawfully required to assist in taking of Census who refuses to perform any duty imposed upon her/him by this act; or any census officer who intentionally puts any offensive or improper question; or any sorter, compiler or other member of the census staff who removes, secrets, damages or destroys any census documents or deals with any census document in a manner likely to falsify or impair the tabulation of census results, shall be punishable with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees and in case of a conviction shall also be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to three years"....