‘NPR has nothing to do with NRC’, Govt gives nod for Population Register

The Union Cabinet took some significant decisions during its meeting on December 24, 2019. One of the major announcements concerned preparation of the National Population Register. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said that the NPR exercise was started by the previous UPA government, and needs to be done every ten years. He said that the government was setting aside almost Rs 4000 crore for the exercise, apart from over Rs 8000 crore for the next Census. The move assumes significance given the protests against a proposed register of Indian citizens or NRC. The government has said that the NPR has nothing to do with an NRC.