NCP's Nawab Malik links 'Aadhar' to NPR, says 'there's more here than meets the eye'

Even though the government on Tuesday assured people that updating the National Population Register (NPR) is not linked to the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) in any way, NCP leader Nawab Malik has raised concerns over the exercise. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, he said that "there is more here than meets the eye". He said that the government has already collected Aadhaar data of 132 crore Indians and the census of citizens can be linked with the same; therefore, there is no need for the NPR exercise.

'...there is no need for the NPR exercise'

He also questioned whether the NDA government is bringing in NPR to fulfil the divisive mindset of some individuals or to give Rs. 8,500 crore contract to people close to them. The NCP spokesperson asked the government to "clarify their intentions" to the people of the country.

'No link between NRP and NRC': Amit Shah

Home Minister Amit Shah in an interview with ANI on Tuesday evening ruled out any links between the contentious NRP and NRC. He said, "NPR is the register of population, NRC is the register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes." He further clarified that any information obtained through NPR cannot be used for the NRC process. Amit Shah further claimed that the NPR was started by the Congress government and the BJP government is just carrying it forward. 

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The NPR exercise is to commence from April next year. The NPR is a list of "usual residents" of the country. Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting a door-to-door survey. The digitisation of the updated information has been completed. Now it has been decided to update the National Population Register along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021 from April to September 2020 in all the states/union territories, except Assam.

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