It demands courage! Is RaGa even ready for the open challenge?

 

 

New Delhi, December 31: "Almost the same. NPR means Census. Census means NPR. There are no changes. The usefulness in Census, we are taking some more details for welfare activity", affirmed Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy on Tuesday proposing the National Population Register to be similar to the one in 2010.

 

Reddy, who took part in a pro-CAA event organised by the BJP, also assured that no individual would be troubled and details of Aadhaar card, properties and bank accounts were not necessary under NPR. "The population census would be conducted from February 9 to 28, while that for housing data would be from April to September 2020", he informed.

 

Launching a broadside on Congress, he charged the opposition party with indulging in politics on the CAA issue. "Congress is misleading, doing politics, making wrong use of CAA to halt development, to halt our work to make the country an economic superpower of 5 trillion Dollars," he said.

 

He affirmed that any ordinary BJP worker would be ready for a debate with Rahul Gandhi at any stage or place on the issue and said the Congress leader what was there in CAA. Reddy also said Congress had tried to indulge in politics in the last 70 years by dividing the country on communal lines. "There was not even a word in the CAA against Indian Muslims orpeople of other religions and people of the minority community had nothing to fear", he noted.

The census and NPR would be done simultaneously by enumerators using mobile apps in smartphones. Using the data, the centre and states can implement their schemes. The data would also be used to determine whether to increase or decrease SC/ST reservations and decide on delimitation of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies, according to him.

 

Delimitation of LS constituencies to be done in 2026 would be based on data obtained from the 2021 census. When asked what action government would take if some states do not implement NPR, he said, "This is a constitutional obligation to take up the Census and NPR. NPR was initiated by the Congress Government. But some people are spreading a malafide campaign that people will be kept in detention centres and jails", he said.

 

Reddy sought to know why AIMIM had not objected when the Telangana government conducted an integrated family survey on a single-day day, in which details, including Aadhar, those related to religion, house and bank accounts were included. He also said he would like to inform Congress leader Rahul Gandhi there was nothing against any religion in the Citizenship Amendment Act.