Assam excluded from National Population Register (NPR) process

December 25: Assam has been excluded from the National Population Register (NPR) process. As per sources, as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been recently updated in the state wherein more than 19 lakh people were excluded from the state, so this could be one of the probable reasons for excluding Assam from the NPR.

The Union Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given the go-ahead to clear the budgetary allocation for conducting the updation of National Population Register (NPR). The Union Cabinet approved Rs 3,941.35 crore for updating the NPR. Also the cabinet has sanctioned funds to the tune of over ₹8,500 crore for the exercise of the Census of India, 2021. The NPR will be updated along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April to September 2020 in all the states/union territories, except Assam.

In the Cabinet briefing by Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal, it was stated that NPR is a population registrar and not a citizens’ registrar. NPR has nothing to do with NRC. Javadekar also said that NPR was done by the UPA in 2010 also and we are repeating it in 2020. NPR is self-declaration and no document or bio-metric, etc are required for it. The NPR exercise is to commence from April 2020.

Hours after the Union Cabinet approved Rs 3,941.35 crore for updating the NPR, the CPM on Tuesday said that chief ministers who opposed the NRC should also stop the National Population Register process. “NPR=NRC. How much more will the Modi government lie and mislead the people? It was stated clearly on the record in the Rajya Sabha by this government that the National Population Register is the base document from where the NRC work will start,” CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

Reacting to the allegation of CPM, Home Minister Amit Shah said, “Some parties opposing NPR to deny benefits to minorities. Minorities benefited  only due to the schemes brought by Prime minister Narendra Modi. He also said that there is no link between National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR). “NPR wont take away any one’s citizenship. It is possible that some names are missed in the NPR but it wont affect their citizenship. It is a regular process for updating details like deaths, mapping people who have migrated to different states and recording new birth,” the home minister said.