English हिन्दी
Connect with us

India News

After Bengal, Kerala slams brakes on National Population Register amid CAA-NRC protests

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stalled the National Population Register (NPR) in the state amid allegations that the exercise the “first step towards the National Register of Citizens (NRC)”.

Published

on

Anti-CAA-Protester

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has stalled the National Population Register (NPR) in the state amid allegations that the exercise the “first step towards the National Register of Citizens (NRC)”.

The Chief Minister’s office issued a statement that said the NPR “deviates from constitutional values”. “Considering that the apprehensions among the general public that the conduct of NPR related activities leads to NRC in the wake of Citizenship Amendment Act-2019, the state government orders to stay all the activities connected with the updation of National Population Register in the state forthwith,” the statement said.

Earlier this week, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also put a stay on the NPR in her state amid massive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Critics of the law say that it discriminates against Muslims and along with the proposed NRC, it would mean that “only the Muslims would be filtered out”.

Banerjee’s Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party president Chirag Paswan, both allies of the ruling BJP in the state and at the Centre, have objected to the implementation of nationwide NRC. “Kahaan ke liye laagu hoga, ekdum nahin laagu hoga (Why should it (NRC) be implemented? It will not be implemented (in Bihar)”, said the Bihar CM.

As protests against the CAA are intensifying by the day, the government appears to have switched to damage control mode.

Home Minister Amit Shah has more than often announced in the parliament that the government will carry out a nationwide NRC.

However, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said there is “no plan for a nationwide NRC” and that “there has so far been no discussion on the matter at any level of government.”

Naqvi reiterated that the NRC is only limited to Assam and there is no such plans for the country.

What is NPR?

According to the website of the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, the objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country. The database will contain demographic as well as biometric details.

The pilot project had questions related to demographic details such as name, age, sex, relationship in household, nationality, educational qualifications, occupation, date of birth, marital status, residential address, birthplace and mother tongue.

The NPR exercise will be conducted in conjunction with the house listing phase, the first phase for Census 2021.

The NPR exercise is conducted at the local, sub-district, district, state and national levels.

Origin of NPR

The legal framework for the National Population Register is grounded in the Citizenship Act, 1955. In 2003, the Act was amended by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government to introduce the category of an “illegal migrant”.

What is NRC?

The NRC is an official record of those who are legal Indian citizens. It includes demographic information about all those individuals who qualify as citizens of India as per the Citizenship Act, 1955. It is a state-specific exercise and has been conducted only in Assam so far.

The NRC includes names of those persons (or their descendants) who appear in any of the Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of March 24, 1971 or in any one of the other admissible documents issued up to mid-night of March 24, 1971, which would prove their presence in Assam or in any part of India on or before March 24, 1971.

How are NPR and NRC related?

Economist and convener of the Joint Forum against National Register of Citizens, Prasenjit Bose has described the National Population Register as the “first step on the road to the National Register of Citizens”, according to a report by news website Scroll.

The data collected during NPR will be used when the National Register of Citizens will be rolled out across the country. The central government has decided to prepare the NPR between April 2020 and September 2020. The mammoth nationwide exercise will be carried out in 16 languages, at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore. The census data will be collected through a mobile app.

The NPR would create a list of usual residents of the country. A usual resident is defined as a person who has resided in a local area for past six months or more or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months or more.

The NPR exercise will be conducted in conjunction with the house listing phase, the first phase for Census 2021. It is conducted at the local, sub-district, district, state and national levels.

Once the NPR is completed and published, it is expected to be the basis for preparing the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC), a pan-India version of Assam’s NRC. The NRC will take the NPR list and identify people of “doubtful citizenship”.

The final NRC will be prepared by asking “doubtful citizens” to prove they are Indians as part of a “claims and objections” process.

2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Amit Shah says there will be jungle raj in the country if INDIA Bloc is voted to power

The Union Home Minister asserted that, if INDIA Bloc alliance comes to power, there will be a complete jungle raj in the country as well as in Bihar.

Published

on

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that there will be jungle raj in the country if INDIA bloc partners – Congress and RJD – are voted to power. He was addressing an election rally in favour of senior BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai, in Bihar’s Samastipur district where he said that the latest recovery of Rs 30 crore and more from the house of a minister in Jharkhand proves INDIA bloc alliance leaders are corrupt.

The Union Home Minister asserted that, if INDIA Bloc alliance comes to power, there will be a complete jungle raj in the country as well as in Bihar. Earlier the Enforcement Directorate on Monday recovered a huge amount of unaccounted cash during searches at the premises of a domestic help who was allegedly linked to the secretary of Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam.

Shah asked the people at the rally that who will be the prime minister of the INDIA bloc? He asked if Sharad Pawar  would become the prime minister? Or Will Mamata Banerjee will become the PM of the country or MK Stalin or Uddhav Thackeray? He jokingly took at dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that he would like to take another name. He asked the people not to laugh and said can Rahul baba become the PM?

Shah accused the leaders of the RJD and the Congress of not attending the Ayodhya Ram temple Pran Pratishtha because of vote bank politics.  He further added that RJD’s Lalu Prasad and Congress always opposed the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. Shah pointed out that Congress has always opposed reservation for the backward classes. Sarairanjan block comes under the Ujiarpur Lok Sabha constituency where Rai is seeking a reelection. Rai, who is the NDA nominee, is up against RJD’s Alok Mehta.

Continue Reading

2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Union Minister Anurag Thakur lashes out at Congress, accuses party of receiving support from Pakistan

Anurag Thakur was speaking to the media during an event in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district

Published

on

Union Minister Anurag Thakur on Monday alleged the influence of foreign powers in the Congress manifesto and accused the grand old party of receiving support from Pakistan. He said the BJP never believes in politics in times of disaster and emergencies, but the Congress has stooped so low that it is doing politics in such matters as well.

Anurag Thakur was speaking to the media during an event in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district on Monday. He also applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for its proactive role during disastrous floods and rains in Himachal Pradesh. The Union Minister said that the Modi government has distributed crores of rupees in Himachal Pradesh during the disaster.

Thakur took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that the Wayanad MP forgot to follow his own slogan of daro mat. He said that Gandhi is running from one seat to another while fearing defeat in the ongoing Loksabha elections. Thakur further added that Rahul Gandhi first ran from Amethi to Wayanad and now he is contesting from Rae Bareli and the Congress will be wiped out from Rae Bareli as well.

Anurag Thakur targeted the Congress and said the grand old party is living in fool’s paradise of winning the elections on false promises. The Union Minister claimed that the Congress’s dreams will be shattered on June 4 after the election result announcement.

Anurag Thakur is contesting Lok Sabha elections 2024 from Hamirpur seat. He said he was confident that BJP will win the election this time as well. He claimed of having support of the people of the constituency. He also said that his victory margin this time would be more than the previous margin of about 4 lakh votes. Thakur who is a 4 time MP also expressed optimism that the BJP-led NDA will win more than 400 seats in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

Continue Reading

2024 Lok Sabha Elections

Rahul Gandhi challenges PM Modi to lift 50% cap on reservation

Rahul Gandhi today addressed a rally at Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, where he said this election is being fought to save the Constitution.

Published

on

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi announced today that the party would raise quota benefits for members of Dalit, backward, and tribal communities and lift the 50% restriction on caste-based quotas imposed by the Supreme Court.

Speaking at a election campaign in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi said, the Constitution is being defended in this election. “BJP and RSS wish to bring this to a close and alter it. And this is being saved by the Congress and the INDIA bloc. You have rights on jal (water), jangal (forest), and zameen (land) under this Constitution. With a copy of the Constitution in his hand, he declared, “Narendra Modi wants to get rid of them and have total power.

He claimed that if the BJP won, its leaders would change the Constitution. They used the slogan 400 seats for this reason. However, they won’t be getting 150 seats; forget about 400, he added. They promise to eliminate reservations. He would like to inform that going forward, they will surpass the 50% reservation cap. Congress will reserve as much space as is necessary for the underprivileged, the backward, Dalits, and Adivasis, he said.

Gandhi’s comments come with a heated campaign for the Lok Sabha elections and contentious discussions about reservations between the NDA and the INDIA alliance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP has claimed that the Congress intends to modify the backward class reservation in order to benefit Muslims. The claims have been refuted by the Congress. At a rally in Gujarat, Banaskantha, the PM said, he challenges the shehzada of the Congress as well as his party and its supporters to announce they will never misuse reservation in the name of religion, nor will they play with the Constitution or grant reservation in the name of religion.

Gandhi claimed during the Ratlam rally that stories about crimes against Adivasis are not covered by the media. The media does not report on the rape of your children or the seizure of your land. These media companies do not employ Adivasis, he said.

Meanwhile, Ratlam will vote in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 13. Former MP and former Union Minister Kantilal Bhuria has been named by the Congress for Ratlam seat. The BJP’s choice from the seat they won in the 2019 election is Anita Nagar Singh Chauhan.

Continue Reading

Trending

-->

© Copyright 2022 APNLIVE.com