Amid the ongoing protests against Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) and proposed National Population Register (NPR), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday (February 4) said in Lok Sabha that no verification will be carried out for Indian citizens under NPR. The MHA asserted that under NPR no verification will be done to find individuals whose citizenship is doubtful.

The Centre also clarified that no document will be collected during the NPR updation and it will not be mandatory to provide Aadhaar number during the exercise. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informedthe Lok Sabha that the Centre is holding talks with the states having concernswith regard to the preparation of the NPR. he added that NPR exercise will be used to update and collect the demographic and other particulars of each familyand individual.

Rai said that the Centre has already prepared an instructionmanual for updation of NPR 2020 for enumerators and supervisors and people willbe asked to provide information for the NPR to the best of their knowledge andbelief. "No document is to be collected during the updation of NPR,"he said replying a written question.

Notably, the pan-India NPR exercise will be done along withthe house listing phase of the Census 2021 from April 1 to September 30, 2020. "The NPR updation will be undertaken through house to house enumeration for collection of specified particulars relating to each family and individual. The respondent has to provide the information true to the best of his knowledge and belief. Aadhar Number is collected voluntarily," Rai noted.