The Centre has not taken a decision on preparing a nationwide NRC at present, minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
By ET Bureau | Updated:
BCCL
NEW DELHI: The Centre has not taken a decision on preparing a nationwide NRC at present, minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. “Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the national register of Indian citizens at the national level,” said Rai’s statement.
President Ram Nath Kovind did not refer to NRC in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament at the beginning of this budget session though in his address to the joint sitting of Parliament last June he had said the Modi government had decided to implement NRC on a “priority basis”. This was reiterated by home minister Amit Shah in his debate to the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha in early December. In earlier replies to Parliament, the home ministry had maintained NRC would be created using data from the National Population Register.
However, in Tuesday’s reply, Rai said no document would be collected during NPR updation and providing Aadhaar number would be voluntary. “No document is to be collected during the updation of NPR.” The minister also said that during NPR updation, no verification will be done to find individuals whose citizenship was doubtful.
The government is holding discussion with states which have raised concerns on preparation NPR data, Rai said. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had appealed to her counterparts in the northeast and non-BJP states to carefully study the NPR form, its questions and criteria before taking a decision on updating it. The Kerala government had said it will carry out the census but would not cooperate with NPR. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, an ally of the BJP, had requested that NPR drop the column on parents’ place and date of birth. Odisha CM Navin Patnaik too has expressed reservations on NPR.
