Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, on Wednesday said that the Aadhaar number under the National Population Register (NPR) is collected voluntarily.
On plans to link NPR data with the data stored in the Aadhaar database, Rai, in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, said, "In pursuance of Sub-rule (4) of Rule 3 of the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955, Central Government decided to prepare and update the population register during April to September, 2020 along with House listing and Housing Census throughout the country except Assam for collection of information relating to all persons usually residing in village or town. Aadhaar number under the National Population Register (NPR) is collected voluntarily."
Rai further informed that the number of Bangladeshi nationals who have overstayed in the country beyond the period of their visa validity after entering India legally during the years 2107, 2018 and 2019 is 25,942, 49,645 and 35,055, respectively.
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