This story is from January 18, 2020

HYDERABAD: Respondents to the National Population Register, 2020 questionnaire will have to tell the government if their parents were born in India or in a foreign country, if the trial run conducted last year is any indication. If the parents were born in India, one will have to indicate the state and district. If they were not born outside India, the country will have to be mentioned.

This is one of two new questions that the questionnaire for the trial run, conducted in select states between October and December, had. The second question was about giving Aadhaar number, PAN number, driving license, mobile number and voter ID. Both these questions were missing in the 2010 final format NPR .

The pre-test is a mandatory exercise conducted to find out if there are any difficulties in obtaining answers. It also gives an indication on how people are responding to the questions. Sources in the government said that there can be small modifications in the final format of the questionnaire when NPR is finally rolled out.

Sources said that asking for details of country of origin of parents could become a contentious issue given the ongoing protests in different parts of the country over the CAA. Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and other opposition leaders have been alleging that NPR is backdoor entry for a country-wide National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC).

