The government has not taken any decision on preparing a National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) for the whole country, Union minister Nityanand Rai said inParliament. He, however, said the government has decided to update the National Population Register (NPR) under the Citizenship Act, 1955, along with the first phase of Census 2021.

“Till now, the government has not taken any decision to prepare the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) at national level,” Rai said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

So far, theNRChas been updated only inAssam. When the final list of the NRC was published in 2019, a total of 19.06 lakh of the 3.3 crore applicants were excluded, triggering a huge political row.

The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity Database of every usual resident in the country. The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars.
The NPR is a register of the usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (village and sub-town), sub-district, district, state and national levels under the provisions of the Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.