Assam government moves Centre for NPR exercise in State

NATIONAL POPULATION REGISTER

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Seeking the National Population Register (NPR) exercise also in Assam, the State government has moved the Registrar General of India (RGI). This has been conveyed in a recent letter where Dispur stated that the NPR will help the Government in preparing the policies of various government schemes in a better manner

According to GAD (General Administration Department) sources, as the NPR will consist of the detailed data of the people of the country, this will come in handy while detailing the different welfare schemes of the government especially after the publication of the Census 2021. GAD is optimistic that since the RGI is under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), it will have discussions with the MHA on this issue.

As of now, though the RGI will be carrying out the Census operation in Assam in 2021 it has decided to keep the State excluded from the NPR exercise in the same year. Sources informed that presently Assam has been excluded from the NPR exercise in view of the National Registrar of Citizens (NRC) update. On the other hand, the NPR will be conducted simultaneously with the Census in the other States and UTs of India.

Notably, the NPR exercise is different from the decennial Census. The NPR is a Register of the “usual residents” of the country. It is being prepared at the local (Village/sub-Town), sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

It is mandatory for every usual resident of India to register in the NPR. A “usual resident” is defined for the purposes of NPR as a person who has resided in a local area for the past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.

The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.

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