Centre discussing NPR with states

Centre on Tuesday said it was discussing with state governments preparations for update of National Population Register (NPR) from April 1 to September 30. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha that document will be collected during exercise, which will be carried out along with house-listing phase of Census 2021.

" government is in discussion with states having concerns in regard to preparation of NPR. demographic and or particulars of each family and individual are to be updated/collected during exercise of updation of NPR. document is to be collected during this exercise," he said replying to a written question.

Home Ministry sources said central government has alrey started outreach to allay apprehensions of states by meeting chief ministers critical of exercise. Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Mhya Presh, Chhattisgarh are some of n-BJP ruled states which have apprehensions about NPR and critical towards exercise. NPR data will be collected along with house-listing phase of census to be conducted from April 1 to September 30.

As part of this outreach, Registrar General and Census Commissioner Vivek Joshi recently met Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and apprised him about preparations for census and NPR. Punjab Assembly has opted a resolution expressing opposition to Citizenship Amendment Act. Joshi, who will supervise census and NPR exercise country-wide, is expected to meet chief ministers of all states critical of NPR, sources said.

Several states, including Kerala, has said y will cooperate with census exercise but t NPR. Recently, after attending a meeting convened by registrar general, Rajasthan Chief Secretary D B Gupta said he and representatives of a few or states raised objections to a few questions to be asked by enumerators to people during NPR exercise.

"We said certain questions in NPR are impractical, like questions related to birth place of parents. re are many people in country who even don't kw what was ir birth place. I don't kw what is purpose of such questions and we have told meeting to remove such questions," Gupta said.

objective of updating NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in country. database would contain demographic and biometric particulars. tification for house-listing phase of census and NPR exercise came recently amid furore over contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Home Ministry sources said most of states have tified provisions related to NPR.

NPR is a register of usual residents of country. It is being prepared at local (vill/sub-town), subdistrict, district, state and national levels under provisions of Citizenship Act, 1955 and Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. rules have a provision for fine of up to Rs 1,000 on those violating m.

data for NPR was last collected in 2010 along with house-listing phase of Census 2011. Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting door-to-door survey. While updating register in 2015, government asked details like Ahaar and mobile numbers. This time, information related to driving licence and voter ID card may also be gared, officials said, ding that PAN card details will t be collected as part of this exercise.

For 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. law compulsorily seeks to register every citizen of India and issue a national identity card. Assam has been excluded because National Register of Citizens exercise has alrey been conducted in state.

demographic details of every individual are required for every usual resident: name, relationship to he of household, far's name, mor's name, spouse's name (if married), sex, date of birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality (as declared), present dress of usual residence, duration of stay at present dress, permanent residential dress, occupation, educational qualification. Union Cabinet has approved Rs 3,941.35 crore for NPR exercise.