TN puts NPR on hold, says Centre yet to respond

The reaction from the Minister comes a day after the DMK president and Leader of the Opposition MK Stalin demanded that the government adopt a resolution against the CAA and NPR.

“We are yet to receive the Centre’s reply in this regard. Until then, the enumeration work related to NPR will be stalled,” the Minister said, adding that the public need not worry as Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami made it clear that the State government would protect the minorities.

“The government has not yet fixed a time schedule and the public need not furnish any confidential data to enumerators,” the Minister said. Udhayakumar also explained that the new NPR format has three new queries regarding dates of birth and places of birth of parents of citizens, their mobile numbers and Aadhaar details. “Those queries were not there in the 2010 NPR. The State has taken up this issue with the Centre.”

He pointed out that NPR was launched during the UPA regime when the DMK was in alliance with the Congress. Further, explaining the AIADMK government’s stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) issue, he said the government could not adopt a resolution in the Legislative Assembly against the Central legislation passed by the Parliament as it would go against the Constitution. The Minister said that the public documents need not be produced by residents to support their claims and urged the minorities to understand the issue. “The DMK is trying to play spoilsport and we know that this is a sensitive issue,” he added.

Udhayakumar added that the State is taking steps to create awareness on the issue as a lot of misinformation is being spread by the DMK which implemented the NPR in 2010. “The same manual followed by the DMK in 2010 is now being followed,” he claimed.