Yogi govt halts NPR exercise in UP till further orders amid rising Coronavirus cases

Amid unprecedented Coronavirus outbreak, Yogi ityanath government in Uttar Presh has decided to halt all exercises related to National population register (NPR) till furr tice. Currently, UP has reported 4057 coronavirus cases. Issuing a circular on Saturday, UP government said that first phase of Census 2021 & NPR which includes counting of number of households and house, has been stopped in view of outbreak of Covid 19. circular has been undersigned by Principal Secretary Jitendra Kumar and has been sent to all district magistrates and district hes.

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Earlier on March 24 when PM Modi anunced pan-India 21-day lockdown, first phase of NPR and Census process has been deferred.  NPR was scheduled to be prepared between April 2020 and September 2020. Nationwide protests against NRC-CAA-NPR have been witnessed since vember and h continued till recently, but h to be stalled temporarily amid state curfews.

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States pass ant-NPR resolutions

As of date, Andhra Presh, Delhi, Bihar, Tamil Nu, Kerala, West Bengal, and Mhya Presh have opposed NPR in its current format - demanding it to be restored to its 2010 version. Moreover, states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana, Chhatisgarh have passed ant-CAA resolutions too. NPR updation, costing Rs. 3941 crore has been approved by Union cabinet and Home Minister Amit Shah h stressed that individual would be marked as ‘doubtful’.

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What is National population register?

NPR was first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015. It is an identity database maintained of all usual residents of country and is prepared at local, sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of Citizenship Act 1955. Any resident who has resided in a local area for past 6 months or more, or intends to do same has to mandatorily register in NPR.

Centre has stated that NPR is a self-declaration where document, bio-metric, etc. required for it. details required in document are 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. updation which has been clubbed with 2021 census count.

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