New Delhi: The Union Cabinet approved Tuesday the proposal to update the National Population Register (NPR). According to the Census Commission, the objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every ‘usual resident’ of India. The database will have demographic as well as biometric details. A ‘usual resident’, for the NPR, is a person who has lived in an area for at least six months or more, or a person who intends to live in an area for the next six months or more. It is mandatory for every ‘usual resident’ of India to register in the NPR.
The NPR exercise will be held between April and September 2020 in all states and Union Territories except Assam. The total cost of conducting the NPR will be approximately Rs 8,500 crore.
It should be stated here that many feel that the NPR is as the first step towards a nationwide exercise to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Though the NPR doesn’t necessarily guarantee the implementation of the NRC, it certainly clears the path for the citizens’ list exercise which was conducted in Assam. This is one of the main reasons why states like West Bengal and Kerala have stopped work on NPR.
The data for NPR was first collected in 2010 during the second term of the UPA government, along with the house-listing phase of Census 2011.
The NPR data was first updated in 2015 with door-to-door surveys and the digitisation of the updated data is complete now, officials said.
West Bengal and Kerala have stopped the NPR exercise, over a week after the controversial bill to amend the Citizenship Act was passed by both houses of the Parliament.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had recently said, “All activities regarding the preparation and updation of NPR are stayed in West Bengal. No activity regarding NPR may be taken up without clearance from the government of West Bengal.”
Agencies