Bhubaneswar: After extending support for enactment of the much-maligned Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the BJD government in Odisha has geared up to implement National Population Register (NPR) in the state.
However, after drawing flak from various quarters for supporting CAA, BJD has said a big ‘No’ to National Register of Citizens (NRC). Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the state will not implement NRC in the state.
“As per the instructions of Registrar General of India, the state government is implementing NPR,” said Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marndi.
According to official sources, the house listing will start from April 16 and continue till May 16. After completion of the month-long exercise, a survey will be conducted to collect data for updating the NPR. Pilot work in this regard has been completed, the sources said.
The government is collecting information including Aadhaar number, driving licence number and PAN details among others for the excercise.
The government will conduct the survey for Census 2021 in between February 9 and 28.
Meanwhile, Congress slammed the move. “An environment has been created to divide India and incite civil war so that Emergency can be declared. People will get nothing from such an exercise,” said Congress leader Sarat Rout.
However, both BJD and BJP rejected the allegation of Congress and said NPR has nothing to do with NRC or CAA. “There is no link between NPR, NRC and CAA. Some political leaders are making misleading statements. As per documents available with us, only the NPR data will be updated,” said BJD spokesperson PK Deb.