All employees of the Economics and Statistics Wing (Planning Development and Monitoring Department now Finance Department) celebrated 14th Statistics day in simple and impressive function at Conference Hall PD&MD Complex, by observing all SOPs regarding COVID Management.The day with this year’s theme “Sustainable Development Goals” was celebrated in order to create awareness among establishments and the people, especially the younger generation about the role of statistics in socio-economic planning and policy formulation.District Statistics & Evaluation Officer Rajouri, Bilal Rashid Mir in his introductory address said that National Statistics Day is celebrated to mark birth anniversary of Prof. PC Mahalanobis for his significant role in the study of socio- economic contours of India, which are extremely useful till date for the Government in taking decisions regarding the policies having direct impact on the country’s population and overall development.Asserting that the road to improvement is never ending, Mir requested the officers/officials to take a pledge to regain the past glory of the department and to take ‘sustainable development goals’ to the next level with a focus on the theme 2020 to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages & achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. He further highlighted various achievements of the Department, regarding release of District/ Block Statistical Handbooks, Collection of Price Statistics, Conduct of Surveys and Physical verification of Projects being conducted under the supervision of Director General E&S Anil Kumar Gandotra and District Dev. Commissioner Nazir Ahmed Sheikh.Chief Planning Officer Rajouri Shamaun Ahmed in his concluding remarks paid tribute to late Prof PC Mahalanobis. He talked about the dependence of development process on the statistics and informed that the day is celebrated to popularise the use of Statistics in daily life and also make people understand how Statistics help in shaping and framing the policies. He further reiterated that due to COVID-19 pandemic, this year National Statistics Day is celebrated virtually, in view of the travel and safety advisories.District President Non-Gazetted SEA, Rajouri Farooq Ahmed while speaking on the occasion said that the field of statistics is the science of learning from data, Statistical Knowledge helps you in using the proper methods to collect the data, apply the correct analyses and effectively presenting the results. Among others present on the occasion were Sukhdev Singh (AD DSEO office, SO Shaheen Mirza, Miss. Archana, Nazir Hussain, Manzoor Hussain, SA Tahir Khurshid, Sarfaraz , Wasid, Nouman Mir, Ayoub etc.