Southern states have advanced statistical system: NSC Chief

Bangalore, Nov 26 (UNI) The Southern states which have been more advanced both economically and socially also have a well equipped statistical system, Prof Suresh D Tendulkar, Chairman, National Statistics Commission said here today.

Delivering the inaugural address at the day long Regional Conference of Ministers Incharge of Statistics in Southern States here, Prof Tendulkar expressed confidence that these states would also lead in implementing the recommendations of the national conference held in September this year.

''I hope their response to the recommendations of the national conference would be positive and they would back them with the required executive action, so that official statistics take their rightful position in the state public administration along with other departments'' he said.

Referring to subjects chosen for discussion in today's conference Prof Tendulkar said three of the four areas, Civil Registration, Agricultural Statistics and Statistics for local area planning were primarily produced by government agencies with specific focus and objectives while the fourth namely State Domestic Product required compilation of data from all other sources.

''All the four areas, despite their rising importance in economic development, reflect the common weaknesses in the national and state statistical systems which need to be addressed'' he said.

He said statistics on crop area and production which depended entirely on the village level functionaries and village administration had suffered over the years as less priority was given to it.

''We have so far not been able to put in place alternative mechanisms to replace or modify the existing system'' he said.

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