SHILLONG: Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday stressed on the need to conduct an aggressive campaign on the implementation of National Population Register (NPR) in Meghalaya besides asking all the district administrations to prepare calendar well in advance to create sensitization among the people about the objectives of NPR.
Speaking to media persons after meeting a delegation of the pro-ILP pressure groups here, the chief minister said the district administrations should engage in sensitization programmes for the NPR with all the stakeholders in every locality.
According to him, a country with more than 1.25 billion population must have a national register of its citizens, while adding that NPR will be of great advantage for Meghalaya where there is a concern for illegal immigration and doubtful citizens since NPR provides the data of citizens which can be used to categorize people.
While admitting that the there were lot of misgivings about the NPR, he said the response from the people in the State was not encouraging as many times officers have gone to villages but very few people have come forward for enrolment.
Meanwhile, KSU general secretary Auguster Jyrwa said the NGOs were not against the NPR but were only emphasizing on the importance of making people aware in the State on the objectives of implementing the NPR.
“Awareness was one of the main points of decision during the meeting held in 2013. But since the past two years there was no activity on the part of the district administrations to organize awareness in the localities and villages, and suddenly this year they started the process of implementation of the NPR,” he said.
He said that the chief minister has assured that the State government will ensure that awareness programmes will be taken up before starting the enrolment process.
On the other hand, FKJGP president Joe Marwein said they have suggested the State government to take into confidence the traditional institutions while implementing the NPR, especially in areas having ‘mixed population’.
