Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that no document would be collected during the exercise, which would be carried out along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021.

The Centre on Tuesday said it was in discussion with States that had expressed concerns about the updation of the National Population Register (NPR) from April 1 to September 30.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that no document would be collected during the exercise, which would be carried out along with the house-listing phase of Census 2021.

“The government is in discussion with the States having concerns in regard to the preparation of NPR,” Mr. Rai said. “The demographic and other particulars of each family and individual are to be updated/collected during the exercise of updation of NPR. No document is to be collected during this exercise,” he added, while replying to a written question.

Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh are some of the non-BJP ruled States that have expressed apprehensions about the proposed new format of the NPR and are critical of the exercise. The Union Cabinet has approved an outlay of ₹3,941.35 crore for the NPR exercise.

The “pretest” or the trial NPR form collected details from 30 lakh respondents last year on 21 parameters and sought specific details on the “place of birth of father and mother, last place of residence” along with other information like Aadhaar particulars (optional), voter ID card, mobile phone and driving license numbers. The new NPR form, for the first time, is also expected to collect information on a respondent’s “mother tongue.” In 2010 and 2015, the NPR collected details on 14 parameters.

Many State governments have objected to the new fields in the NPR such as “the place of birth of parents” as sometimes in villages, and even in cities, people may not be aware of even their own place of birth.