Congress to up NPR ante, plans key meeting of general secretaries & MPs

The Indian National Congress will hold a meeting of all its general secretaries and members of Parliament to discuss the National Population Register (NPR) on February 4 at 6 pm. According to a press release, the meeting will be held at the party office at 15, Gurudwara Rakabganj road in Delhi.

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Contentious NPR

The Congress has been vocally opposed to the NPR, calling it a backdoor attempt to implement a nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC). Several top leaders including former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Shashi Tharoor, among others have opposed NPR and have been rallying the Opposition in their effort to discourage the government to carry out the exercise.

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States blocking NPR

On December 17, Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal government became the first state to put on hold the work on NPR. It was followed by CPI(M) ruled Kerala three days later. While the Congress party has opposed the move, none of the five Congress-led states have passed an official resolution against the same. BJP allies last week welcomed the Union government's decision that giving details about parents' birth will be optional for people during the NPR exercise, with LJP president Chirag Paswan expressing confidence that it will help end "confusion" over the issue.

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BJP clarifies, Oppn sees no comfort

Earlier, Union minister Prakash Javadekar had said that giving the date of birth or place of birth of parents is optional in the exercise. Opposition parties, which have been protesting against the exercise, have said that a large number of people, especially the poor, in the country do not have details of their parents' birth dates or places.

However, BJP leaders and Ministries have been given contradictory statements. As per the Home Ministry report, every household head will have to sign the NPR document, which says that the information given by him is to the best of his knowledge. In case of any wrong information, there is a provision of imposing a penalty of up to Rs 1,000 in NPR as well as in the Census too.

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(IMAGE CREDIT: PTI)