Kerala government not to implement NPR

Kochi: The Kerala Cabinet on Monday decided not to implement the National Population Register (NPR). While the government said it will cooperate with the Census, it will exclude two questions from the questionnaire, one regarding the date of birth and the other about details of parents.

The Cabinet, in a special meeting chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, deemed that these two questions are unnecessary, and will ask enumerators to omit them.

The government will inform the Central Census Commissioner and the State Census Director about its stand on NPR and the Census.

The Cabinet said that if the Union government implements the NPR along with the Census, it will invite a strong protest from a majority of people.

With this Cabinet decision, the Left Front government’s opposition to the Centre on implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and NPR has become sharper.    

Earlier, the CPM had declared a stance against the NPR. The party’s recently concluded party central committee meeting issued directions to state governments not to implement NPR.

Meanwhile, Kerala chief secretary Tom Jose met governor Arif Mohammad Khan at Raj Bhavan and submitted the government’s explanation for moving a petition in the Supreme Court against the CAA.

The governor had sought a report from the government for moving the anti-CAA suit without keeping him informed.

It is reliably learnt that Tom Jose briefed the governor about the circumstances under which the state government approached the Supreme Ccourt. He explained that there was no deliberate attempt to keep Khan in the dark.

The government’s stand is that it has not violated the Rules of Business by moving the suit in the apex court.

The meeting is said to have lasted 20 minutes. Jose did not speak to the media personnel after the meeting.