NEW DELHI: Reiterating that the National Population Register (NPR) was nothing but a precursor to the controversial National Register of Citizens ( NRC ), CPM on Wednesday said the government should, in light of opposition by several states, separate collection of data for the Census operation from the NPR enumeration.

The CPM politburo said in a statement that the NPR data would be automatically used to prepare the NRC and that “crores of people whose names do not figure in NRC will be subjected to undue harassment”.

“Given the opposition by several state CMs, it is necessary to separate the collection of data for the Census operation from the announced NPR enumeration,” the party said.

