India to Register All Citizen for National Population Register

NEW DELHI (NNN-Bernama): The Indian government on Friday said that it will compulsorily register every citizen in the country for creation of a National Population Register (NPR), as the first step towards the creation of the citizens register, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.

Addressing a conference of Chief Secretaries, State Coordinators and Directors of Census Operations held here Friday, Home Secretary R K Singh said more than 140 million records have been digitised and more than 5 million biometrics have been captured so far under the NPR.

The exercise is expected to be complete by December 2012, he said.

"The idea of NPR is a vital scheme of the government, under the Citizenship Act 1955 and Citizenship Rules 2003," he said.

Earlier, in his key note address, Indian Minister of State for Home Jitendra Singh has emphasised the importance of this national flagship scheme of the government and stated that this is a mandatory exercise.

He expressed the hope that with the unstinting cooperation from the state governments and Union Territories, the work will be completed within the timelines set.-NNN-BERNAMA