Odisha To Delete NPR Column On Parents’ Birthplace Details

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to delete the column that seeks details on the birthplace of parents of an individual during the enumeration of the National Population Register (NPR) in the state.

The decision to scrap column 13(2) in the NPR format 2020 was taken at the BJD Parliamentary Party meeting presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at Naveen Niwas here on Tuesday. It came ahead of the Budget session in Parliament.

After the meeting, leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party Pinaki Mishra said, “We had objected to this clause to the Centre, which has agreed to it as it is optional for the state.”

Mishra said the CM has told the members to take up the inclusion of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) along with the SC and ST list in the NPR format. This will enable the state government to identify the exact number of OBCs in Odisha as well as the country. This is an important component that has been left out of the NPR format.

He stated that the Naveen Patnaik government will support the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), but not the National Register of Citizens (NRC),

Among the other demands by Odisha to be discussed in Parliament, Naveen has asked his party MPs to raise the early completion of the pending railway projects, clean energy cess, release of arrears in coal royalty and GST, Polavaram project and inter-state river water disputes on Mahanadi.

The BJD leader informed that the CM has advised the members to work in coordination with the local MLAs in their respective constituencies and submit their bi-monthly performance reports.