Before Unique ID, get ready for Population Register entry

Even before Indians begins to get the Unique Identification Number later this year, they would already find a place for themselves in the National Population Register (NPR), beginning next month.

Even before Indians begins to get the Unique Identification Number later this year, they would already find a place for themselves in the National Population Register (NPR), beginning next month.

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The government had brought coastal villages under the register in the first phase of the plan launched last year after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The second phase will begin next month when enumerators list the houses where they will have to go during the 2011 Census.

They will also carry a machine-readable form that they will have to fill, listing the names of people and their details across 16 other parameters, right from their marital status, education and occupation to their nationality, fingerprints, photograph and their present and permanent address.

The government is mandated to create the register under the Citizenship Act, which will have a list of all Indian residents irrespective of their citizenship.

Like the Unique Identity number, the NPR does not entail issuance of a card except in coastal areas. It is estimated that the population register would cost the exchequer nearly Rs 3,539 crore.

According to the schedule approved by the home ministry, canvassing of information for the register will continue till September. In between, camps will also be put up to enable people who may have been missed out by enumerators to register themselves.

“The list would then be made public so that people can point out errors, intentional or otherwise,” a ministry official said.