Owaisi urges Telangana to issue residence certificates ahead of voter roll revision

As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls gathers pace in Telangana, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has urged the Congress government to issue Permanent Residence Certificates (PRCs) or Family Register Certificates (FRCs) to residents to help them avoid deletion during the exercise.

Owaisi met Telangana Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao on Friday and demanded that, on the lines of Karnataka, the state issue PRCs or FRCs.

In Karnataka, the Congress government issued a special government order on June 29, two days after the SIR exercise began, to provide PRCs to residents as documentary proof of domicile.


The certificate will be issued to those who have lived in the state for 10 years or more, or whose parents have been residing there for at least 10 years. Whether the PRC will be accepted as a valid document during the SIR process remains to be seen. The move has drawn objections from the BJP. Union minister Shobha Karandlaje has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking his intervention.

"The Constitution guarantees One Nation, One Citizenship. No State can create a parallel mechanism that undermines this constitutional principle. The Karnataka Congress Government's Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) notification raises serious constitutional and national security concerns. It risks weakening citizenship verification and undermining the Union Government's exclusive authority over citizenship," Karandlaje posted on X on Friday.