BJP partner AIADMK puts NPR on hold in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: The updation of National Population Register has been put on hold in Tamil Nadu until the state government receives clarifications from the Centre on the three new questions in the form, revenue minister R B Udayakumar said here on Thursday.
He told mediapersons that the state government has notified only the Houselisting Operation as of now. The Union government issued an order for Houselisting Operation, along with updation of NPR for a period of 45 days.It has to be done from April to September this year.
“We have notified only the Houselisting and Housing Census between June 16 and July 30, and there is no notification for updation of NPR. We will take up NPR exercise only when a response is received from the Centre. We have not received it yet,” the minister said.
Union Home minister Amit Shah told Parliament on Thursday that no citizen will be marked ‘D’ or ‘doubtful’ during the updating exercise and no documents are needed to prove citizenship.
Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had sought clarifications on the three additional questions in NPR 2020 format, including mother tongue, place and date of birth of parents and spouses.
Udayakumar said the state had no competence to revoke a Parliamentary law, but the opposition was indulging in false propaganda that NPR required submission of documents.
“We say it again that there is no need for submission of documents for NPR. Enumerator will only register the details provided by the citizen,” he said, reiterating that the NPR exercise was meant for all sections, irrespective of religion and caste. The minister said the states that had passed resolutions in the assembly against NPR too had notified the conduct of NPR exercise in their respective states, including Bihar and Punjab.
Taking a dig at DMK president M K Stalin, who urged the anti-CAA protesters in Washermenpet to remain non-cooperative to the NPR exercise, Udayakumar sought to know how welfare schemes could be evolved and funds could be received if the basic data about the population was not available.
“The opposition and the DMK leader were conspiring to make the minorities scapegoat and earn political gains,” the minister said, adding the AIADMK’s influence among the minorities would not reduce a bit.