Amit Shah dismisses Owaisi's claim of NRC-NPR being linked; mocks him for comparison

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, December 24, seeking to put an end to worries about updation of a National Population Register (NPR), stated that re was link between NPR exercise and NRC. Along with this, he dismissed claims of AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi that NPR was linked with NRC and said both are very different things. Amit Shah speaking to ANI indicated that Owaisi would always oppose steps taken by BJP-led government.

'I am t surprised by stand taken by Owaisi Ji'

Amit Shah said, "I am t surprised by stand taken by Owaisi Ji. If we say Sun rises from east, n Owaisi Saab would say it rises from west. But I want to assure Owaisi Ji too that NPR is very different from NRC and it has thing to do with it." Owaisi has been one of most vocal critics of Citizenship Amendment Act which was enacted earlier this month.

Asaduddin Owaisi has claimed that government has already started groundwork for a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) by implementing National Population Register (NPR). Centre on Tuesday allocated a budget of Rs 8,500 crore for NPR during Cabinet meeting which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a series of tweets, Owaisi ‘explained’ link between NPR and NRC. “NPR is first step of National Register of Indian Citizens, which is or name of nation-wide NRC. It’s important to understand link between NPR and NRC,” Hyderabad MP said.

'Govt has clandestinely started implementing NRC via NPR'

Talking to reporters in Hyderabad on Monday, Owaisi said government has ‘clandestinely’ started implementing NRC via NPR. “When a nationwide NRC is done, every Indian would be in trouble. t even five per cent of people in India have passports. Can you imagine a hundred crore people standing in lines, for what… to prove my citizenship and who will decide that?” he said.

NPR exercise is to commence from April next year. NPR is a list of "usual residents" of country. Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting a door-to-door survey. digitisation of updated information has been completed. w it has been decided to update National Population Register along with house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April to September 2020 in all states/union territories, except Assam.

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What is NPR?

National Population Register (NPR) is a register of usual residents of country being prepared at local (vill/sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national level under provisions of Citizenship Act 1955 and Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in NPR. Under NPR, a usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for next six months or more.

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