West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Friday expressed dismay for not being intimated about the state government's decision to stay the preparation and updation of the National Population Register (NPR).
In a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Dhankar said it is surprising that this decision was not communicated to him and it had come to his notice from what is being circulated in the public domain.
The West Bengal government on Monday stayed all activities relating to the preparation and updation of the NPR in the state, amid furore over the amended Citizenship Act.
The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.
"No activity regarding NPR may be taken without prior clearance from the government.... Surprisingly, the communication was not forwarded to me and has come to my notice from what is being circulated in public domain".
Dhankar said, "In view of the serious policy issue involved, I hereby require you (Banerjee) to submit this matter for the consideration of the Council of Ministers."
A top Home Ministry official in New Delhi, however, said no state can refuse to carry out the process of updating the NPR as it is done as per the Citizenship Act and the matter of citizenship is in the Union list.
The data for the NPR was collected in 2010 along with the houselisting phase of Census 2011. This data was updated during 2015 by conducting door to door survey. The digitisation of the updated information has been completed.
Now it had been decided to update the NPR along with the Houselisting phase of Census 2021. The West Bengal governemnt has stayed this updation process.
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