The government has no plans to carry out an exercise to prepare a National Register of Citizens (NRC) for the whole country on the basis of data to be collected during the updating of National Population Register (NPR) next year, PTI quoted officials as saying on Tuesday. The remarks by the home ministry officials came in the backdrop of the controversy over the NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act.
"There is no proposal as of now to prepare NRC on the basis of NPR data for the whole country," an official said.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also said that there has been no discussion in the government on the NRC.
"Since my government first came to power in 2014, I want to tell 130 crore countrymen, there has never been a discussion on this NRC," he said, noting that it was done only in Assam due to a Supreme Court order.
The government on Tuesday announced it was going ahead with its decision to implement the National Population Register (NPR) across the country in 2020. Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said that the government will implement the NPR in each state but Assam through a parliamentary act starting April next year.
On the National Population Register:
1. No evidence will be asked at the time of registering names for NPR.
2. No biometrics will be required for NPR.
3. All the information furnished at the time of NPR will be taken as true.
4. The details for NPR will be collected through an app.
5. The details collected at the time of NPR will be released along with Census 2021.
6. The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 8,754.23 crore for the Census of India in 2021 and Rs. 3,941.35 crore for updation of National Population Register (NPR).