The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Uttar Pradesh Government led by Yogi Adityanath to postpone all exercises relating to updating National Population Register (NPR) across the state.
The Chief Secretary of the U.P. Government on Friday wrote to all the Divisional heads as well as to all Collectors that the work relating to counting of number of households and updation of NPR as the first phase towards the Census of India, 2021 in the state of Uttar Pradesh has been suspended in wake of situations emerging from outbreak of COVID-19, till further orders. The first phase of the exercise was to begin from 16th May and run throughout until 30th June, 2020.
The NPR was first prepared in 2010 and updated in 2015. It is an identity database maintained of all the usual residents of the country and is prepared at the local, sub-District, District, State and National level under provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955. Any resident who has resided in a local area for the past 6 months or more, or intends to do the same has to mandatorily register in the NPR.
The Centre has stated that NPR is a self-declaration where no document, bio-metric, etc. required for it. The details required in the document are name, relationship to head of household, father’s name, mother’s name, spouse’s name (if married), sex, date of birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality (as declared), present address of usual residence, duration of stay at present address, permanent residential address, occupation, educational qualification. The updation which has been clubbed with the 2021 census count.
As of date states like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh have opposed the NPR in its current format – demanding it to be restored to its 2010 version. Moreover, states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Telangana, Chhattisgarh have passed ant-CAA resolutions.
-India Legal Bureau