Tamil Nadu government puts on hold NPR activities

The National Population Register (NPR) exercise will be put on hold in Tamil Nadu, state Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar has said.

The Minister told mediapersons in Chennai on Thursday (March 12) that the Centre had not given any clarification on the queries raised by the state government.

The Centre’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), NPR, and NRC had created a lot of apprehension. While 13 states passed resolutions against the CAA in their respective legislative assemblies, states like Tamil Nadu had not.

There were protests by Muslims in Washermanpet, after which it earned the sobriquet ‘Chennai Shaheen Bagh.’ In this context, Udhayakumar said, the state was putting on hold all NPR activities.

Related news: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh to pass resolutions against NPR, NRC

“The Tamil Nadu government has given nod only for carrying out the Census. We have not issued any notification to carry out the NPR exercise. We have raised queries on three questions on the NPR form. Until we get clarifications from the Centre, the state has decided to stop the NPR exercise,” he said.

He added that there was no need to submit any documents during the NPR exercise.