Tripura to start NPR data collection from May through mobile app

Agartala: Tripura will collect data as part of the National Population Register updation from May this year through mobile application only, even as the country has been witnessing several protests against NPR, as well as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), a senior official of the directorate of census operations said on Friday.

The data for NPR would be collected as part of the census operation in the northeastern state.

“Deployment of around 11,000 people in a team would be done for the NPR mechanism. A part of the process has already been started. In the first phase, collection of the NPR data like the listing of houses and housing census would start in Tripura from this May 16,” director of the census operations PK Chakraborty said while speaking to reporters.

“This phase would continue until June 29. In the second phase, real census operation would start from next year. The data collection will be done through mobile app only,” Chakraborty said.

Of the 11,000 members, nearly 9062 would be enumerators followed by 1556 supervisors, nine principal census officers including other charge officers and additional charge officers.

Sixteen master trainers would train 169 field trainees from April 6 to 10 at Agartala.

Chief secretary of the state Manoj Kumar, also head of the Tripura State Level Census Coordination Committee, decided to collect data only through app though as per the Registrar General of India both mobile app and paper schedule can be used for the first phase of NPR data collection process, said the official.

Chakraborty said data could be finalised faster through the mobile app operation and if in case of poor internet connectivity in certain hilly and bordering areas, the enumerators could enter the data and later upload it with the speedy internet connection.

The NPR data was surveyed in the country in 2010 for the first time and it was later updated in 2015, Chakraborty said.

Questions related to name, age, place of birth, sex, marital status, relation with family’s head, nationality, educational qualification, permanent residential proof, occupation, details of parents, Aadhaar number, EPIC card number, driving license number, and phone number and other details of the concerned person are included in the NPR questionnaire to be used this May.

According to the 2011 Census report, Tripura registered a population of 3,673,917.

The NPR, which is a comprehensive biometric database of all “usual residents” in India, as opposed to the Census, which is a database of households, has generated controversy with the opposition parties contending that the exercise is linked to the National Register for Indian Citizens (NRIC), which is aimed at identifying illegal immigrants.

The government, which has in the past described NPR as the first step towards a nationwide NRC, now maintains that there is no link between the two and that an all-India NRC is not immediately on the anvil.

At least two state governments of Kerala and West Bengal have announced they will not participate in the NPR updation. At least 10 chief ministers have said they will not participate in an all-India NRC whenever it is rolled out.