No link between NPR and NRC, state govts should not do politics: Amit Shah

Seeking to put an end to apprehensions about updation of National Population Register(NPR), Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that there was no link between the National Population Register (NPR) exercise and the National Register of Citizen (NRC).

In an exclusive interview with ANI Editor Smita Prakash, Shah said that that information obtained through NPR cannot be used for NRC which was a separate process.

He said the union cabinet has not ever discussed NRC.

Shah's remarks came on a day the union cabinet approved the proposal for conducting Census of India 2021 and updating of NPR.

The minister said that while Census was held every 10 years and NPR was started by the UPA government and the government was carrying it forward as it was a "good exercise".

"NPR is register of population, NRC is register of citizens. There is no link between the two and the two have different processes," Shah told ANI.

He said the names of people living in the country are in NPR based on which programmes are made. With West Bengal and Kerala having decided to put a stop to NPR exercise, Shah said there should not be politics over the exercise as it is aimed at benefitting citizens and for improving the planning of welfare schemes.

"I will talk and appeal to them that no politics should be done on this", Shah said.