Kolkata: The census will start in West Bengal from August 1, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Friday.Speaking on the occasion, CM Adhikari also said that politics should not have been mixed with the census exercise, adding that the delayed start was due to the previous Mamata Banerjee-led government.“The central government had sent a letter to the previous government in February 2025. As the previous government did not do anything in the matter, the state government is lagging behind other states,” Adhikari told mediapersons after a meeting at the state secretariat of Nabanna today.“We decided to start the census exercise in the state at the earliest. In our first Cabinet meeting on May 11, we made a decision. This is an administrative decision. The exercise will start from August 1 this year and will continue till February next year,” the Chief Minister said.Also read | Ambani bets on Jio, AI and green energy to power RIL's next chapter“Census data is very important and a constitutional obligation is involved in such exercises. We have around 600 km of unfenced border. Demographic changes have happened and the way illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are queuing up in large numbers, the Census is crucial for the safety and security of our country and state,” West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said on Friday, adding that the Census self-enumeration will start from August 1.“The census exercise will be conducted digitally for the first time and a separate app will be launched. The collected data will be uploaded to the central server through that app,” the Chief Minister said.“The entire process will continue from August 2026 to February 28, 2027. From August 1 to 15, the self-enumeration will be done,” he said. “For the central welfare schemes, census data will be useful to create a database."Reshmi Kamal, Director (West Bengal), Directorate of Census, GOI, said that on June 16, a notification was issued. In Bengal, on May 11, 2026, notification and preparation of the intention to conduct the census in Bengal were initiated.“First-time digitized census will be conducted. It is a digital census. It is important for data transparency,” Kamal said.The state government has decided to launch the first phase of the census — house listing and door-to-door visits — from August 16, which is scheduled to continue till September 14. For the first time, a completely digitized methodology is being adopted. A dedicated mobile application, the ‘HLO Mobile Application App’, has been launched to ensure secure digital storage of the data collected from households.Also read | The Indian club that outlasted the British may not survive ModiSources at Nabanna indicate that the state government may make use of existing infrastructure utilised during the Special Intensive Revision (SAR) of the electoral rolls, where BLOs worked, to expedite the process.