Maharashtra set for NPR as Uddhav snubs Cong

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 14

Maharashtra is all set to roll out the data collection for the National Population Register (NPR) from May 1 this year after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray overruled objections by the Congress, according to sources here.

While senior leaders, including ministers from the Congress like Varsha Gaikwad, have strongly opposed the rollout of the NPR exercise in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena is said to be in favour of it. The Nationalist Congress Party, which is also part of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi government, is weighing its options and hasn’t taken an official stand on the issue, said sources.

However Home Minister Anil Deshmukh of the NCP has told representatives of the Muslim community that his party was taking legal advice on preventing the NPR exercise from being rolled out in the state.

“The Maharashtra Government will soon issue a notification and start the process of deploying staff for the data collection exercise,” a source from the Census Commissioner’s office said. The notification is to be issued by the General Administration Department of the state government.

The state government wants the census and NPR exercise to be completed by June-end when the next academic year is set to begin. The CM has, however, come out against NRC on the grounds that it would not be possible for poor to produce relevant documents.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.