by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
After CAA, battle begins on NPR now
Maharashtra keeping fingers crossed
States can delay NPR, not defy
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Jan. 16
A fresh row has emerged between the Centre and a few states on implementing National Population Register (NPR) exercise to begin on April 1 this year. Though the Centre is working hard to calm down protests on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) by not notifying rules, some states have toughened their stance against the NPR now.
While West Bengal and Kerala have officially written to the Centre to put the NPR on hold, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Pudduchery & Ladakh (UT s) have not notified dates for conducting it NPR in their respective territories.
Three states — Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan — devised a new strategy by asking the Central government if the NPR data could be shared with them. These states said this would to help in ‘identifying genuine beneficiaries’ for their welfare schemes. Since the Centre has not responded positively, they are sitting pretty as well. Punjab said it would take a call only after the state Assembly deliberates on it. The NPR exercise has already been initiated in Odisha with the state government clearing all the parameters laid down in the NPR act.
The Centre is not in a hurry to press the states as they had already notified NPR implementation last July. These have developed cold feet due to one reason or the other. It would be interesting to mention that the NDA government revived the NPR in 2015 after the UPA stopped it midway in 2010 due to the launching of Aadhaar. The NDA created an electronic data base of 119 crores people in 2015-16 listing usual residents who provided Aadhaar, Voter ID card, ration cards and other details if they possessed the same. There may be some controversy whether providing details is mandatory or not. But the NPR manual of 2020-21 clearly says that this exercise is mandatory and time bound and those willfully defying could be prosecuted.
However, in this case, the state governments have developed cold feet which can lead to the delay.
Ends
