NEW DELHI: The Registrar General of India will ask the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to verify biometrics of individuals for inclusion in the recently revived National Population Register ( NPR ) programme, instead of collecting them afresh.A senior home ministry official told ET that this puts an end to the debate on which agency has primacy over collection of biometrics. The contest had almost derailed UIDAI’s Aadhaar project under the United Progressive Alliance-2 government.According to a recent notification issued by the registrar general and census commissioner of India Vivek Joshi, the NPR will be carried out across the entire country except Assam. “The central government hereby decides to prepare and update the population register and the field work for house to house enumeration throughout the country except Assam for collection of information relating to all persons who are usually residing within the jurisdiction of local registrar shall be undertaken between April 1, 2020, to September 30, 2020,” the notice said.The development comes amid the exercise to finalise the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, for which the Supreme Court has extended the deadline to August 31.With several cases reported from many parts of the country of foreign nationals staying back illegally, the government is actively considering implementing a nationwide NRC and deporting illegal immigrants.The home ministry recently issued a manual on model detention centres.The MHA has asked states to set up at least one detention centre so that illegal migrants can be housed there and located easily when deportation is legally ordered.In 2009, the process of NPR updation clashed with the Aadhaar project under the UPA-2 government. A controversy had erupted over which scheme (NPR or UID) would be more effective and appropriate for different purposes.The home ministry had argued that the NPR would be more suited for transfer of subsidies than the UID, as the population register has data linking each individual to a household.In 2016, the National Democratic Alliance government classified the UIDAI as a statutory authority through the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, and placed it under the ambit of the ministry of electronics and information technology.As on June 24, 2019, 1.23 billion residents have been enrolled under Aadhaar.Unlike Aadhaar, the NPR seeks to capture and correlate several other demographic details rather than restricting itself to biometrics. The list is being prepared at local, subdistrict, district, state and national levels under the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.The NPR database would contain demographic as well as biometric details. “It will include 15 categories of demographic information while biometric details will be sourced from the UIDAI, since the citizenship rules do not provide for collection of biometrics,” said another official.For the purposes of NPR, a ‘usual resident’ is defined as an individual who has resided in a particular area for six months or more. It would also count as eligible a person who intends to reside in an area for the next six months or more.As per the provisions of the NPR, a resident identity card (RIC) will be issued to individuals over the age of 18. This will be a chip-embedded smart card containing the demographic and biometric attributes of each individual. The UID number will also be printed on the card.