Issuance of #MNIC

The Citizenship Act, 1955 provides the Central Government to compulsorily register every citizen of India and issue Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC) to him. It has been decided that National Population Register (#NPR) should be completed and taken to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of National Register of Indian Citizen (NRIC) and National Identity Cards would be issued to Citizens by verification of citizenship status of every usual resident in the NPR. The proposals for the same are under consideration of the Government.

The process of social vetting by Gram Sabha and Ward Committees is one of the steps in the creation of National Population Register (NPR) in the country. The first step involves the collection of information on specific characteristics of all usual residents by Government servants duly designated for this purpose. The second step involves the creation of a digitised database of each resident. Next, photographs, 10 finger prints and IRIS of all usual residents who are of age 5 years and above is collected with reference to the digitised database and in the presence of designated Government servants. After this, the database is sent to the UIDAI for de-duplication and generation of Aadhaar numbers. This ensures that the database does not contain any duplicates. Following this, the details are printed out in the form of Local Register of Usual Residents and displayed in the local areas for scrutiny by the public and invitation of claims and objections for a period of 21 days. All claims and objections are to be heard by the local officials designated for this purpose. There is also provision of appeal to higher level officials. Thus, the claims and objections would be looked into by revenue officials like Patwari or Talati who have been designated as the Local Registrars, Tehsildars, who are designated as Sub-district Registrars and the Collectors/ DMs who are designated as District Registrars. Simultaneously, the LRUR is also placed before the Gram Sabhas and Ward Committees for vetting. Instructions have also been issued that the lists should be scrutinized by the local police and revenue officials. The LRURs duly authenticated and de-duplicated when aggregated at the National level forms the National Population Register. This process has been evolved after extensive consultation and discussion with all stake holders including the State Governments. Thus, the process involved in creation of NPR is comprehensive and includes verification at several stages.

The National Population Register (NPR) is a Register of Usual Residents. It would contain citizens as well as non-citizens. The objective of creating a NPR is to net all usual residents of the country at a given point of time. This would serve as the mother database for creating the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) by verifying the citizenship status of each and every resident.