By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Khasi Students Union and Civil Society Women Organisation on Friday asked Chief Minister Dr Mukul Sangma to keep the implementation of “Aadhaar” scheme, a unique identification project, on hold in the State while stating that mass mobilization was needed on the topic.
The KSU and CSWO leaders made the statement during the presentation of the National Population Register Biometric Enrolment at Yojana Bhavan Auditorium on Friday.
On the other hand, the Chief Minister said that the Government was conducting the exercise of mass mobilization on the subject and that was the reason behind the Government convening a presentation on the matter.
The Chief Minister after the presentation said that the NPR as whole would enable the Government to determine the people who are staying in the country and the state as a whole while adding that the exercise will segregate between the genuine and non citizens of the country.
“Aadhar number will be used for improving public delivery system,” he said while addressing the gathering.
According to Sangma, State Government would soon notify the designated local traditional authorities to seek their participation in the process of the nationwide exercise on implementation of the National Population Registration (NPR) in the State.
It may be mentioned that NPR is a ‘Register’ of usual residents of the country implemented under provisions of The Citizenship Act 1955 and The Citizenship Rules 2003.
Earlier in the presentation, it was stated that the main objective of the NPR was to create a sub-set of the NPR which is the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) to distinguish citizens of India from usual residents.
The logic behind NPR is the fact that there is a genuine problem to identify Indian Citizens from Non Citizens of India residing in the Indian Territory due to illegal immigration from across the border and a clear picture of who claims to be Indian Citizens can be seen through the NPR.
This implementation of NPR will then pave a way to accurately determine the Citizenship of all usual residents in the Indian Territory through an implementation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) where names and details of non-“Indian Citizen”(s) which include illegal immigrants will not appear in the National Register of Indian Citizen.
“The role and involvement of these designated local traditional authorities in the exercise is very important in helping in the verifying process to determine on both genuine and non-genuine citizens in the state,” Mukul said while addressing a presentation function on the NPR held in the city here.
Every usual resident (age 5 and above) will be a part of the NPR which include citizens and non citizens of India. However, after stringent verification of the details of NPR, residents registered under the NPR may be included in the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC).
During the presentation, it was also stated that it was compulsory for every citizen of the country to register in the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) as per Section 14A of the Citizenship Act 1955 as amended in 2004.
As per the presentation, the issue of Aadhaar Number does not confer Citizenship. Therefore, entry in NPR does not confer a right to claim Citizenship.